Indian PM travels to Bhutan, pushes for local sway
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Sunday kicked off his first visit abroad since taking office, arriving in Bhutan to launch a drive to reassert Indian influence in the region, offering financial and technical help and the lure of a huge market.
The tiny Buddhist nation wedged in the Himalayas between India and China is the closest India has to an ally in South Asia.
Modi's Hindu nationalist party has vowed to end the neglect of neighbors and in an unprecedented gesture, he invited all regional leaders to his inauguration last month.
The choice of a visit to Bhutan to build on the inaugural outreach shows an astute sense of the region's critical importance to India's economic dynamism and strategic strength, said Alyssa Ayres, a South Asia expert at the New York-based Council on Foreign Relations.
"Of course, India is also closely watching China's border talks with Bhutan and China's recent efforts to establish stronger ties with Thimphu," she said on the think tank's Asia Unbound blog.
On Sunday, hundreds of school children dressed in traditional red and green tunics lined the route from the airport to wave the Indian flag as Modi's motorcade arrived in Bhutan's capital of Thimphu, nestled among mountains and for centuries closed to outsiders.
At the airport, Modi was welcomed with a ceremonial white scarf by Bhutan's Prime Minister Tshering Tobgay and Cabinet members, wearing the national costume of ankle-length red robe.
During the trip, Modi will lay the foundation of a 600 MW hydroelectric power station and inaugurate a parliament building also constructed by India.
"Bhutan and India share a very special relationship that has stood the test of time," Modi said before he left New Delhi. "Thus, Bhutan was a natural choice for my first visit abroad."
In the longer term, Modi's government aims to make India the dominant foreign investor across South Asia as well as the main provider of infrastructure loans, in the same way China has done in much of the rest of Asia and in Africa.
Consolidating ties with difficult neighbors such as Pakistan and Bangladesh could reduce poverty and transform regional security relationships, Indian officials say.
"Although India would like to have a greater say in South Asian matters beyond trade, so far we have not been able to exercise substantial political clout," said P.D. Rai, a lawmaker from the state of Sikkim, which shares a border with Bhutan.
"Modi's first visit to Bhutan will have to be looked at in this light."
He is accompanied by Foreign Minister Sushma Swaraj as well as National Security Adviser Ajit Doval, credited with helping craft the neighbors-first policy.
India's neighbors have responded enthusiastically to Modi's overtures. His Pakistani counterpart, Nawaz Sharif, overcame resistance at home to attend the inauguration even though political ties remain fragile and marked by deep distrust.
(China Daily 06/16/2014 page12)
