No plans to have diplomatic ties with China, says Bhutan

Bhutan has no plans to establishdiplomatic ties with China, a top leader of the ruling party said on Friday, asserting that the country would not host missions of the ‘Big Five’ of the UN.  The ruling Druk Phuensum Tshogpa(DPT)’s officiating president Yeshe Zimberuled out any diplomatic relations between Bhutan and China, saying the meeting between outgoing Prime Minister Jigmi Y Thinley and the then Chinese premier Wen Jiabao at Rio de Janeiro in Brazil last year was just a ‘courtesy call’ and nothing more should be read out of it.

The Rio meeting, on the sidelines of an international meet, was seen by many in India as Bhutan’s warming up to China. Also linked was New Delhi’s recent decision to withdraw subsidy to kerosene, cooking gas with meeting.