NEW DELHI, July 29: Bhutan has held talks to discuss its border issues with China and the move has become a worrying prospect for India, the Indian Express said on Friday. The report, which also said Bhutanese King Jigme Singye Wangchuk would visit India next week was confirmed to an extent by the Indian foreign ministry.

“Taken aback by Thimphu’s announcement that it had agreed to ‘change the claim line’ in boundary talks with Beijing, New Delhi is now waiting to hear it from the Bhutan King who arrives here next Monday,” the Express said. The landlocked country has been traditionally regarded as India’s pocket borough.

“It came as a complete surprise when Bhutan’s Secretary for International Boundaries Dasho Pema Wangchuk, who sat with his Chinese counterpart on July 13-14, said that both sides had ‘agreed to change the claim line’,” the paper said.

An Indian foreign ministry spokesman confirmed that the King of Bhutan would indeed pay a “working visit to New Delhi from 1st to 4th August, 2005”. He added that India and Bhutan shared warm and cordial relations and a tradition of periodic exchange of high level visits. “His Majesty’s visit would provide an opportunity to discuss bilateral and other issues of mutual interest.”

Dasho Pema Wangchuk will also be part of the Bhutan King’s delegation and is expected to arrive here earlier for talks with Indian officials to explain what transpired with China at the last meeting. He may also meet National Security Adviser M. K. Narayanan, India’s special representative in the boundary talks with China, the Express said.

“With little input on what had happened and apprehensive that Thimphu was willing to cede some territory, India rushed its Director-General of Military Operations Lt-Gen Madan Gopal to Bhutan last week to explain the importance of the territory north of Bhutan which forms part of the disputed boundary,” it said.

The military delegation also met the Bhutan King and explained to him the importance of the area bordering the Chumbi valley which falls in the Tibet Autonomous Region. According to the report, the Bhutan King has been concerned about the fallout on his kingdom of the resumption of border trade via Nathu La.

“In fact, he is said to have been surprised at the pace with which the Chinese had developed infrastructure to support this trade. Besides, he is wary of the Chinese building roads close to the Bhutan claim line that runs from Doklam (close to Sikkim and Nathu La) in the west to Sinchela in the east,” sources told the Indian Express.

Thimphu may thus view an early settlement of its boundary dispute with China as the best way to address these concerns given that New Delhi has agreed on a set of guiding principles to resolve its boundary dispute with Beijing.