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Caught in middle of giants’ gamesmanship, Bhutan holds its breath

HAA (Bhutan) — India’s main garrison in the Kingdom of Bhutan sits only 20km from a disputed border with China. There is a training academy, a military hospital, a golf course — all testament to India’s enduring role defending this tiny Himalayan nation.

A billboard in Beijing promoting the concept of a ‘courageous’ Chinese military. China is calling for Indian troops to withdraw from Doklam, a disputed Himalayan border area. Photo: AP

A billboard in Beijing promoting the concept of a ‘courageous’ Chinese military. China is calling for Indian troops to withdraw from Doklam, a disputed Himalayan border area. Photo: AP

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HAA (Bhutan) — India’s main garrison in the Kingdom of Bhutan sits only 20km from a disputed border with China. There is a training academy, a military hospital, a golf course — all testament to India’s enduring role defending this tiny Himalayan nation.

Earlier this summer, China began extending an unpaved road in the disputed territory, and India sent troops and equipment to block the works.

The incursion has resulted in a tense stand-off lasting more than 50 days, with Indian soldiers facing Chinese troops who have dug in just a few hundred metres away.

At a time when North Korea and the United States are trading threats of war, China and India — the world’s two most populous nations — have engaged in increasingly bellicose exchanges over this remote border area, evoking memories of their bloody conflict in 1962 as the world’s attention was focused on the Cuban Missile Crisis.

There are fears that ambition and nationalism could lead them to war again, but now with more firepower at their disposal.

Caught between these two nuclear rivals seeking regional dominance is Bhutan, a mountain nation of 800,000 with a mystical reputation and a former king who popularised the concept of “gross national happiness” as a measure of a country’s well-being.

India says it is acting on Bhutan’s behalf in the stand-off. But its intervention has not resulted in much gratitude here. On the contrary, many in Bhutan feel that India’s protective embrace has become suffocating.

“In the case of war between India and China, we would be the meat in the sandwich,” said Mr Pema Gyamtsho, the opposition leader in Bhutan’s National Assembly. “It shouldn’t have to be a choice,” he added, referring to his nation’s ties with India and China, “but it is at the moment”.

For decades, Bhutan has chosen India. More than a half century ago, Bhutan watched warily as China’s Communists took power and eventually occupied neighbouring Tibet. India offered to defend the kingdom, and Bhutan accepted.

But the latest stand-off has inflamed festering resentment over India’s influence in the country. In particular, many suspect that New Delhi has sought to block Thimphu’s efforts to establish diplomatic relations and expand trade with Beijing, fearing that a rapprochement could remove the strategic buffer that Bhutan provides.

“Bhutan has every right to its sovereignty; that’s the crux of the thing,” said Mr Wangcha Sangey, a former publisher and head of the Chamber of Commerce and Industry, who has been one of the most outspoken critics of India’s interference. “We have the right to live the way we want to live and to have the foreign relations we want to have.”

On the surface, the dispute turns on the plot of land claimed by both Bhutan and China. India has accused China of extending the road to expand its control of the territory, with some comparing the move to Beijing’s efforts to cement its claims in the South China Sea by transforming reefs into islands.

The disputed area is strategically significant because it slopes into a narrow Indian valley that connects central India to its land-locked northeastern states. India calls it the Chicken’s Neck and has long feared that China could seize it in a war, splitting its territory.

But when India ordered its troops across the border on June 16, it seemed to do so without a request from Bhutan. While Bhutan has condemned the Chinese road works, it has studiously avoided saying whether it asked India to intervene. The Indian government has also avoided the question.

China has been talking tough, with near-daily warnings against India. Commodore Liu Tang, a deputy commander of the South China Sea Fleet, warned last week in an article in The People’s Liberation Army Daily that China’s restraint thus far was “not without a bottom line”. The headline declared: “China’s territory is large, but not an inch of land is redundant.”

India has put more troops on alert in recent days, suggesting that it, too, is not prepared to back down.

Bhutanese officials have maintained a pointed silence, preferring ambiguity to the risk of offending either India or China. The Foreign Ministry did not respond to requests for comment; nor did Prime Minister Tshering Tobgay. Foreign Minister Damcho Dorji said last week that he hoped the situation would be resolved “peacefully and amicably”.

Many interviewed in Bhutan expressed more concern about India’s actions than China’s. Some note that one effect of India’s move — intended or not — has been to undermine border negotiations with China that could have cleared the way for closer economic ties.

Part of the lure of better relations with China is money. In addition to the shuttle trade, there is tourism, one of Bhutan’s biggest industries. Indians do not need visas to travel to Bhutan, but Chinese must pay US$250 (S$340) a day in advance for vacation packages. Still, for the first time last year, more visitors came from China than from any other country besides India.

Mr Pema Tashi, who manages Happiness Kingdom Travel and advertises Bhutan as “a sojourn in paradise”, caters to Chinese clients. He complained that there were no direct flights between Bhutan and China, and expressed suspicion that India had worked to prevent a normalisation of relations that would open up such routes.

“We try to protect the interest of our big brother,” he said, referring to India, “but they feel that if we get closer to the north, we might not be as dependent on them.” THE NEW YORK TIMES

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