Bhutan assures it will respect India's security concerns

With Bhutan and China looking at expeditious resolution of their boundary row, Thimphu has assured New Delhi that India's "security concerns" are of paramount importance for it.

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"The new government in Thimpu assured the visiting Foreign Secretary Vinay Mohan Kwatra that Bhutan will under no circumstances ignore the security, strategic and geopolitical concerns which have been raised by India from time to time amid the boundary negotiations between the neighbouring country and Beijing," diplomatic sources told The Daily Guardian.

The assurance from the Bhutanese side came when Indian foreign secretary Vinay Mohan Kwatra called on Bhutan King Jigme Khesar Namgyel Wangchuck and Prime Minister Tshering Tobgay in Thimpu over the past two days, sources said. FS Kwatra was on a three-day trip to Bhutan since Monday, in the first high-level visit from India after the formation of a new government under People's Democratic Party (PDP)

leader Tshering Tobgay. Tobgay had earlier held the office of PM from 2013-2018.