India is treating Bhutan as a puppet state and used it as an excuse to send troops to its border region with China recently without any regard for sovereign rights, according to one Chinese expert, who has warned that increased tensions in the region could lead on the path to war.
“India monopolizes the military matters as well as foreign affair matters of the Kingdom of Bhutan,” Victor Gao Zhikai, director of the China National Association of International Studies, told CGTN’s Dialogue.
“Using Bhutan as the excuse and sending troops into territory which India does not have a sovereign right to is a very flimsy argument and eventually, if a war breaks out it may involve India, Bhutan and China and this does not bode well for neither of these three countries,” he warned.
“We are in the 21st century and I don’t think any country has any right to hold another country sovereign in nature, independent in nature, as if it is a puppet state,” Gao went on.
China and India have been locked in a standoff in the Doklam border region near Bhutan for the past three weeks. China has protested an illegal border crossing by Indian troops, while India has objected to Chinese construction work there.
To solve the dispute, China has made clear that India needs to pull back its troops to its side of the boundary immediately and unconditionally, noted Li Bijian, minister counselor at the Chinese Embassy in India.
“That is the precondition for any meaningful dialogue between China and India,” he said.
Dialogue with Yang Rui is a 30-minute current affairs talk show on CGTN. It airs daily at 7.30 p.m. BJT (1130GMT), with rebroadcasts at 3.30 a.m. (1930GMT) and 11.30 a.m. (0330GMT).
