The Hindu, Times of India

Days after Bhutan sent China a demarche protesting Chinese claims to the Sakteng wildlife sanctuary in Eastern Bhutan, Beijing has doubled down, including Bhutan’s “Eastern sectors” to the boundary dispute between the two countries for the first time.

“The boundary between China and Bhutan has never been delimited. There have been disputes over the eastern, central and western sectors for a long time,” said the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MFA) in a statement to the media in Beijing. The MFA was responding to questions about China’s attempt last month to stop funding for the Sakteng sanctuary from the UN Development Programme’s Global Environment Facility (GEF), on the grounds that it was “disputed” territory.

According to written records, there has been no mention of Eastern Bhutan, or Trashigang Dzongkhag (district), where Sakteng is based, that borders Arunachal Pradesh, in 24 previous rounds of boundary negotiations held between the two countries between 1984 and 2016. The negotiations have not been held since the Doklam standoff between Indian and Chinese troops in 2017.

This is the first instance when China claimed he area in eastern Bhutan, well inside Bhutan territoy. Sakteng sanctuary is in Trashigang province of Bhutan.

Sources in New Delhi see this move as part of the larger Chinese tactics of putting pressure on India’s smaller neighbours, to punish them for any closeness to India.

In 2017, the PLA had intruded into Doklam plateau which is Bhutanese territory, leading Indian forces to show up in strength to prevent China from building a road up to the Jhampheri ridge. The stand-off went on for 72 days before status quo ante was restored . This year, too, there have been reports that China had started building yet another road along Torsa/Amo Chu, apparently aiming for the Siliguri corridor in India.

Bhutan does not have any formal diplomatic relations with Beijing.

“Such claims undermine the boundary talks and wild claims on either side by officials will only exacerbate issues as Bhutan too can lay claims far north,” said Tenzing Lamsang, Editor of the Bhutanese newspaper in Thimphu, in a series of tweets last week.

“Ultimately Bhutan and China need to resolve its boundary disputes or such false claims will come up as a pressure tactic,” he added.