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Bhutan Entering the Outside World, 1972-86
When civil war broke out in Pakistan in 1971, Bhutan
was among
the first nations to recognize the new government of
Bangladesh,
and formal diplomatic relations were established in 1973.
An event
in 1975 may have served as a major impetus to Bhutan to
speed up
reform and modernization. In that year, neighboring
Sikkim's
monarchy, which had endured for more than 300 years, was
ousted
following a plebiscite in which the Nepalese majority
outvoted the
Sikkimese minority. Sikkim, long a protectorate of India,
became
India's twenty-second state.
To further ensure its independence and international
position,
Bhutan gradually established diplomatic relations with
other
nations and joined greater numbers of regional and
international
organizations. Many of the countries with which Bhutan
established
relations provided development aid
(see Foreign Economic Relations
, this ch.). Moderization life brought new problems to
Bhutan in the
late 1980s
(see Political Developments
, this ch.).
Data as of September 1991
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