NEW DELHI, FEBRUARY 8 : India and Bhutan today signed a landmark revised Friendship Treaty, which enables Bhutan to have more freedom in matters of foreign policy and defence.

The treaty also commits both the countries to cooperate closely with each other on issues relating to national interests, and not allow the use of their territories for activities “harmful” each other’s national security. The treaty — that updates the India Bhutan Friendship Treaty, signed in Darjeeling on August 8, 1949, marks a significant change in India’s approach to its small

neighbours.

The two marked changes in the Treaty are in Article 2 and Article 6 of the old treaty. According to Article 2, Bhutan is to be “guided by the advice of the Government of India in regard to its external relations”. This is being replaced by a language of cooperation, which would essentially translate into Thimpu not acting against Indian interests in the conduct of its foreign policy.

The other change will be in Article 6 that allows Bhutan to import “arms, ammunition, machines, warlike material or stores” for its “strength” and “welfare” but with India’s “assistance and approval.”

The updated treaty while removing “provisions that have become obsolete over time,” has fresh provisions for expanding economic cooperation and cooperation in the filed of education, health culture, sports, science and technology. “India-Bhutan relationship symbolises our belief that the people of South Asia share a common destiny,” the spokesperson of the Ministry of External Affairs said.

“From a guiding role up on Bhutan’s first step to modernisation, we now stand as close friends and equal partners in global arena”, Bhutan’s King Jigme Khesar Namgyal Wangchuck said in a statement issued by the Bhutan Government. The MEA officials feel that the 1949 treaty that was a “colonial inheritance” needed to have changed in keeping with the changing times. From India’s point of view, the updated treaty reflects “mutual desire to enhance the relationship to an even greater level of cooperation”.

Before the signing the treaty the King had a discussion with Prime Minister Manmohan Singh at the Hyderabad House. The King today also held discussion with External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee and Foreign Secretary Shiv Shankar Menon.

Both the sides discussed a wide range of issues pertaining to bilateral cooperation. The King is also learnt to have discussed the process of democratisation of Bhutan. India has also taken up some security issues with the Bhutan King such as the extremist organisations such as the ULFA, National Democratic Front of Bodoland (NDBF) and Kamtapur Liberation Organistion (KLO) who are trying to make that country a base for their operations.

Bhutan had launched an attack on the camps of the Indian militants in 2004 in a major flush out operation. Both the sides also stressed the greater economic cooperation and the projects India is funding in Bhutan. India has many collaborative projects in Bhutan, especially in the hydroelectric power sector.