Why does Bhutan, an independent sovereign country, seek India's advice in its diplomatic activities?

Bhutan is located on the southern slope of the eastern Himalayas between China and India, with an area of only 38, square kilometers and a population of less than 8,. It is one of the least developed countries in the world.

(Scenery of Bhutan)

Since 195s, whenever the royal family of Bhutan wants to conduct diplomatic activities, they first contact foreign embassies, but "report" to India. The king can only travel after getting the "approval". What the hell is going on here?

India has the "guiding power" over Bhutan, which was not invented by Indians themselves.

As early as the 18th century, the British had already reached out to South Asia. By the 19th century, a colony of "British India" had been created. In 197, the Kingdom of Bhutan was founded. Britain immediately forced Bhutan to sign the Punaka Treaty, stipulating that Bhutan must accept British "guidance" in its diplomatic relations.

After World War II, South Asian countries were liberated. India learned from Britain's experience and signed the Treaty of Permanent Peace and Friendship with Bhutan in 1949. This treaty stipulates that it must be "guided" by India when conducting diplomatic relations. It was not until 27 that Bhutan signed the Non-India Friendship Treaty with India that Bhutan gained a certain degree of freedom in diplomatic activities. However, any diplomatic act that India regards as "damaging India's national interests" will still be bound.

(King Bhutan receives Indian Prime Minister)

Then, why did Bhutan sign such a treaty that would undermine its sovereignty?

as we know, it is a rather backward country. Its main economic income comes from agriculture and tourism. If we want to achieve modernization, we must seek asylum from big countries and get economic assistance.

India deeply understands Bhutan's difficulties. Therefore, they provide a certain degree of economic assistance to Bhutan every year, and always control the development speed of Bhutan.

in the past half century, India has long occupied about 9% of Bhutan's total import and export. On the military side, Bhutan's army is basically trained by Indians. India has also stationed nearly 2, troops in Bhutan all the year round.

This means that Bhutan has developed its dependence on India both economically and militarily. And they have never had enough ability to get rid of this dependence. Once it has any idea of strengthening sovereignty, India may stop its aid and put Bhutan's economy on the verge of collapse.

of course, India is not a philanthropist. They must have an agenda to help Bhutan every year.

(Sikkim who participated in the referendum)

After the end of World War II, India pursued a non-aligned policy and achieved great development in the international community. At the same time, in order to stabilize its hegemony in South Asia, India has also begun to control some small countries around it.

For example, in 1975, India held a referendum on "joining India" in Sikkim. As a result, most Sikkim people expressed their willingness to join India. In "desperation", India can only send troops to capture the palace of Sikkim and depose Wang Pei, the 12th generation country of Sikkim, in East Dunanga. After this incident, Sikkim became a state of India. It only took India more than 2 years to complete the annexation of Sikkim.

In fact, during the preparation for more than 2 years, India has been encroaching on Sikkim in the form of immigration and missionary work. As a result, by the 197s, more than 7% of Sikkim's total population were Indians. The original Sikkim people have less than 3%. Therefore, the so-called "referendum" later went quite smoothly.

For Bhutan, India also adopted the strategy of immigration and missionary work. Obviously, India wants to turn Bhutan into the next Sikkim.

Actually, Bhutan doesn't really want to be pushed around. As early as the 196s, King Bhutan had begun to make efforts to gain diplomatic sovereignty.

(King Bhutan meets Indian Prime Minister)

In p>1969, Bhutan issued its own currency Zanum for the first time. In order to avoid offending Indian, Bhutan has implemented a 1:1 exchange ratio between this currency and Indian Rupee. In 197, Bhutan officially announced the establishment of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. The following year, Bhutan officially became a member of the United Nations.

In just three years, Bhutan has made many dangerous explorations. At that time, India was busy with the final work of annexing Sikkim, which also allowed Bhutan's little moves.

in p>1979, the king of Bhutan announced that India's diplomatic guidance to Bhutan would no longer be mandatory. This statement caused an uproar at that time. The Indian side quickly conducted exchanges and negotiations with Bhutan. Since then, Bhutan's diplomatic activities have returned to the road of being forced to "guide" by India.

However, India has also made some concessions. Since 1985, Bhutan has started to develop cross-regional diplomatic relations. They made great efforts to push their influence out of Asia and successively established diplomatic relations with European countries such as the Netherlands, Denmark and Sweden.

By 27, the two sides signed a friendly treaty again, and Bhutan's diplomatic sovereignty was finally restored to a certain extent. But if we can't get rid of our dependence on India, its future development will still be cast a shadow.