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Bhutan Other Countries
Bhutan, the second nation to do so, recognized the
newly
independent Bangladesh in 1971, and diplomatic relations
were
established in 1973. Bangladesh was the only country other
than
India with which Bhutan had diplomatic relations at the
time and,
in the view of some foreign observers, perhaps the only
country
with which India would have allowed Bhutan to develop
bilateral
relations. For Bhutan, however, the step was an important
symbolic
move that provided a new trade outlet as well as another
access to
the sea. Water and flood control, a major multilateral
issue
involving the great Himalayan watersheds that run through
China,
Bhutan, and India into flood-prone Bangladesh have been
perennial
concerns between Thimphu and Dhaka.
Bhutan, with its sizeable Nepalese minority, has been
particularly cautious in its relations with Nepal in
deference to
Indian sensitivities. In 1969 the Nepal-Bhutan Friendship
and
Cultural Society was established in Kathmandu to
facilitate good
relations, but formal diplomatic ties were not established
until
1983, the same year SAARC was founded. Given the ethnic
unrest
among Nepalese in Bhutan, at the request of the
Nepal-Bhutan
Friendship and Cultural Society, the Bhutan-Nepal
Friendship
Association was formed in 1989 to help defuse tensions.
Data as of September 1991
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