Post-Doklam charm drive... Bhutanese royal family visit India

Bhutan’s King Jigme Khesar Namgyal Wangchuck, Queen Jetsun Pema and their son  
prince Jigme Namgyel Wangchuck being received by Sushma Swaraj at New Delhi 
 airport on Tuesday. Picture by Prem Singh

TT, New Delhi: India on Tuesday went out of its way to welcome the Bhutanese royal family with external affairs minister Sushma Swaraj receiving the couple and their toddler son at the airport, two months after the Himalayan nation was at the centre of a face-off between India and China.

Usually, junior ministers receive foreign guests and whenever the protocol is set aside, it is a signal of the importance being attached by New Delhi to a visit.

External affairs ministry spokesperson Raveesh Kumar underscored this, tweeting a picture of Sushma with the royal family and stating "special gesture for a valued friend. EAM @SushmaSwaraj receives Their Majesties, The King, The Queen and The Gyalsey (Prince) of Bhutan".

During the four-day visit, King Jigme Khesar Namgyel Wangchuck will meet the President and the Prime Minister, who will also host a dinner for the royal couple. They are likely to discuss plans for a "befitting celebration" of the golden jubilee of the establishment of diplomatic relations between the two countries.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi could also bring up the Bangladesh-Bhutan-India-Nepal road network project from which Thimpu withdrew earlier this year after failing to get its parliament to ratify the Motor Vehicles Agreement.

While Bhutan is integral to India's "neighbourhood first" policy, this relationship is of particular significance to India because of the advantage New Delhi has enjoyed in the mountain kingdom in comparison with China.

Bhutan does not have official diplomatic relations with China, and Beijing has been nudging Thimphu to move in that direction.

India's relationship with Bhutan is like none other in the region - it has maintained a training mission in the Himalayan kingdom and financed much of the tiny neighbour's five-year plans. In 2015, India accounted for 79 per cent of Bhutan's total imports and 90 per cent of its exports.

With China's influence in the region growing, India would be keen to maintain its upper hand in Bhutan, with Doklam being integral to the establishment of diplomatic ties between Beijing and Thimphu.

In their dispute over 764sqkm, China - by all accounts - is open to giving up its claim on 495sqkm making up the Jakurlung and Pasamlung valleys in north-central Bhutan provided Thimphu relinquishes the Doklam plateau, which is of strategic importance to both India and China because of its height at the tri-junction with Bhutan.

As Bhutan's political space has opened up with elections over the past decade, there is a fairly strong view in the country in favour of having a more balanced equation in the region rather than being solely in India's sphere of influence.

The royalty still wields considerable influence in Bhutan and New Delhi's charm offensive is being seen as part of the attempts to work with the king's office to maintain status quo.