Bhutan obeys India’s order not to attend SAARC

Bhutan has obeyed its big brother’s order not to participate in the upcoming summit of the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC).

Bhutan’s prime minister’s office wrote to Nepal, who is currently the chair of the regional bloc, informing its inability to attend the 19th SAARC summit to be held in Islamabad in November.

Following the killing of its 17 soldiers in Kashmir by alleged Pakistani rebels, India has withdrawn from attending the SAARC summit and put pressure on other nations not to attend.

India has long played role in making SAARC weaker and devised and alternative regional bloc called BIMSTEC which excludes Pakistan.

Under SAARC charter, failure to attend by one nation, the summit is cancelled. The summit has been cancelled for several times in the past due, all due to dispute between India and Pakistan.

Bhutan’s statement reads, ‘As one of the founding members of SAARC, the royal government of Bhutan is strongly committed to the SAARC process and strengthening of regional cooperation and is hopeful that the situation would return to normalcy to enable early and successful convening of the 19th SAARC summit.’

4 thoughts on “Bhutan obeys India’s order not to attend SAARC

  • October 15, 2016 at 9:06 pm
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    Dear Ganesh Dorji,

    Terrorism is on the verge of destroying global peace. In this stage too we cannot think about trade that is the main reason India won’t be participating the summit.

    Now let me tell you about other member nations. Each member nation knows what had happen in the Indian State and who have done it.

    Sikkim was a failed state, it took its decision to join Indian Union (please check your facts, buddy!) India didn’t force it to merge with it. Because we don’t do that for your kind information. If we wanted to occupy then we would have easily reclaimed East Pakistan(now Bangladesh) in 1971 itself, but we didn’t.

    Reply
  • August 6, 2017 at 6:41 pm
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    We are livning in the 21st century when colonialism is almost disappearing in most parts of the world.

    Bhutan should be an independent country and Bhutanese should be able to decide their own foreign policy based on the interests of Bhutan, not by India or any other country.

    Reply
  • August 15, 2017 at 8:48 am
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    India controls Bhutan to achieve India’s own interest.This is hegemony.In today’s world, this hegemony should not be tolerated.

    Reply

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