Bhutan announced on November 25, 2020 that it had established diplomatic relations with Germany. The announcement was made by Bhutan’s Ambassador to India, Major General Vetsop Namgyel, and Germany’s Ambassador to India, Walter J. Lindner during an ‘Exchange of Verbal Notes’ ceremony that took place at the Royal Bhutanese mission in New Delhi.
Germany and Bhutan have had friendly relations in the past. In 2000, consular relations had officially been established between the two countries. Consular relations allows each country to provide assistance to their citizens in another country. Bhutan had agreed to allow Germany to set up an honorary consulate in Thimphu. Bhutan intends to strengthen relations with the European Union (EU) by extending its bilateral relations with Germany. Both Bhutan and Germany share common interests, including similar climate policy and the preservation of a rules-based multilateral international order. Further, Germany has set up various multilateral programmes in favour of Bhutan, through its contributions in various international organisations. These multilateral programmes are run by world bodies such as the World Bank, the Asian Development Bank, and the EU.
Germany has also supported numerous cultural preservation projects in Bhutan, including a joint project of the Bhutan-German Himalaya Society and the National Library of Bhutan to preserve traditional Bhutanese manuscripts, which is being supported by the Federal Foreign Office since March, 2019.
The present-day kingdom of Bhutan, which is ruled by the House of Wangchuck, was formed in 1907. The kingdom was formed as a result of the amalgamation of the various principalities which were previously independent. Bhutan remained insulated from the rest of the world for a long time. Finally, Bhutan slowly started opening up to the other countries through the domestic reforms introduced by King Jigme Dorji Wangchuck, who ruled from 1952 to 1972. Bhutan gradually started establishing relations with other countries and finally became a member of the United Nations (UN) in 1971. In 2008, after Jigme Thinley became the prime minister, the Bhutanese government started establishing diplomatic relations with numerous countries at a fast pace, and officially signed agreements with around 31 countries in five years.
Bhutan had diplomatic relations with only 22 countries at the time of its first election, conducted in 2007. The countries included Japan, Australia, and many Nordic countries. Despite numerous requests from the Permanent Five (P5) members of the UN Security Council, which includes the US, Russia, the UK, France, and China, Bhutan had for long decided not to establish ties with any of them.
The motive behind the Bhutanese government rapidly signing deals with a large number of countries within such a short span of time was to win the election for a non-permanent seat election at the UNSC in 2013-14, but Bhutan lost in the election. However, Bhutan continues to open up, with the efforts of Dr Lotay Tshering who became the Prime Minister of Bhutan in November, 2018.
The establishment of diplomatic relations between Germany and Bhutan has been considered as Bhutan’s first diplomatic initiative in seven years. The previous agreement for establishing diplomatic relations was signed with Oman in 2013. Bhutan’s initiative received appreciations from various countries, including India. India and Bhutan have maintained a friendly relation since 1949, and have closely interacted with each other regarding foreign policy issues.
Diplomatic relations enable countries to work more closely on political, economic, cultural and civil society matters and helps in working towards mutually beneficial results. Once the formal relations have been established between two countries, they would have the option to set up embassies on each other’s territories. However, Germany would not be setting up an embassy in Thimphu, the capital of Bhutan right now. Instead, Germany would be operating through its embassy in Delhi to exercise its relations with Bhutan.
Bhutan currently has diplomatic with 53 countries, including Germany. In addition to this, only three countries, namely, India, Bangladesh, and Kuwait, have their resident missions in Thimphu.