‘Yam’ Between Two Boulders: Re-Assessing India–Bhutan Relationship

Abstract

For India, her ‘beneficial bilateralism’ with Bhutan cannot be taken for granted on the assumption of Bhutan’s perpetual dependence on India. Taking into consideration Bhutan’s strategic location, its local level economic viability along the borders, trade potentials, counter-terrorism in the northeast corridor, and the new balance of power that has been created with China trying to be the dominant economic and military power in the Asia-Pacific, India’s prudent foreign policy needs to assess her relationship with Bhutan more on a realistic paradigm instead of pre-conceived idealism. Though both are powerful, the fundamental contradictions between India and China in South Asia are too apparent to permit any ‘strategic partnership’. A buffer state like Bhutan, by its sheer existence might prevent conflict between two rival powers, but their manipulation is an element of diplomatic game played between the giant neighbors. Moreover, in balance of power model, states try to secure own safety, to reach an equilibrium for self-preservation. Trying to avoid the dominance of one particular state, they may ally with other states until equilibrium is reached. Hence India’s inappropriate assessment of Bhutan’s strategic importance might induce the Himalayan country to seek for new equilibrium by shifting its alliance, jeopardizing the Indian interest. Hence India’s Bhutan policy must be far more nuanced from now on.