Bhutan PM Tshering Tobgay arrives today on first overseas visit after taking office

Sandeep Dikshit

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New Delhi, March 13

Prime Minister of Bhutan Tshering Tobgay will arrive here on Thursday on his first overseas visit after assuming office in January this year. Tobgay will be accompanied by Ministers for Foreign Affairs and External Trade, Energy and Natural Resources, Industry, Commerce and Employment, besides senior government officials, stated an MEA release.

During the visit, the Bhutan PM will call on President Droupadi Murmu and hold bilateral talks with PM Narendra Modi. External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar will call on Tobgay, who will also visit Mumbai.

In the run-up to his visit, the Union Cabinet on Wednesday gave ex post facto approval to an initial pact between India and Bhutan on cooperation in the field of energy efficiency and conservation measures. Tobgay was PM from 2013 to 2018, defeating then PM Jigme Thinley-led Druk Phuensum Tshogpa (DPT), who during his tenure from 2008 to 2013 had twice made contacts with the Chinese without taking South Block into confidence. When the final round of voting for 2013 elections had approached, India suspended the subsidy to Bhutan for cooking gas, giving rise to the impression that it had tried to sabotage the prospects of Thinley for trying to be close to China.

Thinley had then gone live on TV to claim that the China angle had nothing to do with the temporary hardship that hit Bhutan but the Rs 600 rise in gas cylinder prices led to Tobgay’s party winning a majority in 2013.

In 2018, Thinley again became PM and promptly revived border talks with China. The renewed contacts led to a rare meeting between the Foreign Ministers of China and Bhutan in November last year.