Foreign Secretary Vijay Gokhale, General Bipin Rawat and National Security Adviser Ajit Doval visited Bhutan in the first fortnight of this month for bilateral discussions, sources said.
The high-level meeting, a first since the Doklam standoff between India and China last year, yielded a “positive” outcome.
“I can confirm that the visit to Bhutan took place earlier this month to discuss bilateral issues,” said a source confirming the quiet high level visit. The visit came days after Prime Minister Narendra Modi met his Bhutanese counterpart Tsering Tobgay in Guwahati on the sidelines of the Global Investors Summit in the first week of this month.
News agency PTI has reported that the visit took place between February 6 and 7 and the meetings between the Indian and Bhutanese officials yielded “positive” outcome. The composition of the official delegation for the visit indicates that India probably wanted to ascertain Bhutan’s position on the reported increase in the presence of Chinese troops in the Doklam region.
India has maintained that China has not disturbed the ground situation in Doklam since the crisis ended in late last monsoon. However, satellite images have recently shown that the Chinese troops have built extensive infrastructure in the Doklam plateau which can result in quick mobilisation.
Army chief Rawat had visited Bhutan in April last year and the previous Foreign Secretary S. Jaishankar had visited Thimphu after in October 2017.
(With PTI inputs)
