BEIJING: China and its Himalayan neighbor Bhutan agreed to continue to maintain peace and stability in the border areas before the final settlement of the China-Bhutan boundary issues, the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs said on Friday.
Chinese experts said that the meeting shows Bhutan’s willingness to manage border affairs independently, rebutting India’s claims of “China threat,” and reducing the risk on its eastern China-India border. The agreement was reached during the 10th China-Bhutan expert group meeting on boundary issues in Kunming, Southwest China’s Yunnan Province, from Tuesday to Friday. Director-General of the Department of Boundary and Ocean Affairs of the Foreign Ministry Hong Liang led the Chinese group.
Proceeding from the close, friendly and cooperative relations between China and Bhutan, the expert group meeting held in-depth and fruitful discussions on the boundary issue in a warm and friendly atmosphere, the ministry said. The meeting also discussed a roadmap for speeding up China-Bhutan border negotiations.
The two countries agreed to hold the 25th round of China-Bhutan boundary talks and the 11th meeting of the expert group on the boundary issue at an early date at each other’s convenience, according to the ministry. Qian Feng, director of the research department at the National Strategy Institute at Tsinghua University, told the Global Times on Friday that the four-day meeting has further promoted the friendly relations. Despite the two countries not having diplomatic ties, mutual trust between the two countries will be enhanced.
Since the launch of the China-Bhutan boundary negotiations in 1984, the two countries have signed both the guiding principles on the settlement of the boundary issues in 1988 and the agreement on maintaining peace and stability in the China-Bhutan border area in 1998.
– The Daily Mail-Global Times News exchange item
