India and Bhutan to review friendly treaty
New Delhi, January 31: Bhutan and India will soon sign an 'updated' version of its 57-year-old friendship treaty.
According to the sources, the updated treaty will be suited more to the 21st century than to the colonial era of the 1950s.
It is learnt that the treaty will be signed when the king comes to India the next month. It will be sometime in the second week of February.
This issue figured prominently in discussions between Bhutan's Prime Minister Lyonpo Khandu Wangchuk and External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee on Monday. Wangchuk was in India to attend an international conference on Mahatma Gandhi.
The signing of the updated treaty is meant to send a larger message about New Delhi's intention to modernise its relations with its smaller neighbours and imbue these ties with contemporary context.
An updated treaty between India and Nepal, also in the throes of democratic transition, is also being actively discussed between the two sides.
The updated treaty with Bhutan envisages broad changes that will mean New Delhi giving more freedom to Thimphu to pursue its foreign policy as long as it does not clash with its strategic interests. Article 2 of the treaty asks Bhutan to be 'guided by the advice of government of India in regard to its external relations.' This section is likely to be reworded to reaffirm Bhutan's sovereignty in the arena of international affairs.
Article 6 of the treaty which permits Bhutan to import 'arms, ammunition, machines, warlike material or stores' for its 'strength' but with India's 'assistance and approval' is also set for revision, informed sources told IANS.
In practical terms, it would mean India relaxing the provision for its prior approval for Bhutan buying non-lethal military stores and equipment.
India and Bhutan, the idyllic Himalayan nation that prefers to measure its national wealth in terms of gross national happiness, reached an agreement on the text of an updated India-Bhutan friendship treaty, inked in Darjeeling on August 8, 1949, last month.
The revised treaty will broaden the burgeoning economic cooperation between the two countries across a spectrum of areas, including hydropower cooperation, trade and commerce and human resources development.
The restructuring of the treaty had long been in the making and was reviewed and discussed during the visit of Bhutanese King Jigme Singye Wangchuk here in July, Foreign Secretary Shivshankar Menon's trip to Thimpu in October and Pranab Mukherjee's visit to the Bhutanese capital last month. Bhutan News Service