The villages were constructed between May 2020 and November 2021
New Delhi:
The construction of Chinese villages in Bhutanese territory is visible in new satellite images tweeted by a global researcher on Chinese military development. The area is located on disputed land between Bhutan and China near Doklam, which showed construction activity in the period between 2020 and 2021. Now, several new villages are visible spread over an area of about 100 sq km.
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This move by China is particularly worrying for India, as Bhutan maintains a limited armed force guarding its borders. It will also have a wider geo-strategic impact on the neighbourhood.
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@detresfa, one of the main global researchers on Chinese military development along the Sino-India border, wrote in his tweet, “Disputed land between #Bhutan and #China near Doklam shows construction activity between 2020-21. Approx 100 km² Many new villages have sprung up in the U.S. Is this part of a new agreement or the implementation of China’s territorial claims?”
Disputed land between #Bhutan , #China near Doklam shows construction activity between 2020-21, multiple new villages spread through an area roughly 100 km² now dot the landscape, is this part of a new agreement or enforcement of #China‘s territorial claims ? pic.twitter.com/9m1n5zCAt4
— d-atis☠️ (@detresfa_) November 17, 2021
The villages were constructed between May 2020 and November 2021 and it happened during a boundary agreement between Bhutan and China.
Foreign Ministry spokesperson Arindam Bagchi said that India reacted strongly to the “three-step roadmap”, saying, “We have today signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) between Bhutan and China. You know that since 1984, Bhutan and China have signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) between Bhutan and China. China is having border talks.Similarly India is having border talks with China.
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Last year, NDTV reported that China was building a village close to the Doklam plateau, where the Chinese and Indian armies had a tense standoff in 2017. Photos posted by a senior Chinese media reporter show that the village is 2 km away in Bhutanese territory, very close to Doklam.
China’s move comes soon after Beijing passed a mandate on the protection and exploitation of land border areas. The law says that China will “take measures to protect the territorial integrity and land borders, and to safeguard and counter any act that undermines territorial sovereignty and land borders.”
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