FOREIGN POLICY: Securing Our Well Being
For a small nation such as ours, foreign policy is the most powerful tool in ensuring the sovereignty and security of our nation. The wise foreign policies adopted by our Kings have served the nation exceedingly well in the past and we shall continue to follow them dutifully.We live in an increasingly inter-connected world. Information, people, and financial resources move across national borders quickly and often in great volumes. More Bhutanese travel, study, or work abroad, and vice versa. Events anywhere on earth can have a direct and immediate impact, right here at home.
In such a world, issues that affect Bhutanese interests are entwined with international events more than ever before. We have already experienced this world in terrorism, drugs, the spread of communicable diseases such as HIV/AIDS, and climate change. Actions Bhutan takes on such issues will become fully effective when we engage with other nations and with international organizations.
So, security and well being of the Bhutanese people cannot be divorced from those of the rest of humanity. Bhutan must therefore pursue Bhutanese interests consciously, strategically, and proactively, as a member of the international community.
In so doing, we must also harness the strength of our foreign service to promote our exports and economic interests abroad. Military might has given way to the “soft power” of economic strength and skilled diplomacy in international political relations. Leveraging our foreign policy to achieve economic growth and self reliance can effectively strengthen our international standing.
Our Foreign Policy Agenda:
- Safeguard the sovereignty, independence, and territorial integrity of our country;
- Further and strengthen our friendly relations and economic cooperation with India;
- Maintain meaningful and substantive engagements with other bilateral development partners such as Japan, Denmark, Switzerland, Austria, European Union, etc.;
- Further develop friendly bilateral relations with SAARC member states, and cultivate good relations with all peace-loving nations;
- Strengthen Bhutan’s membership and its substantive relationship with regional, multilateral and international organizations;
- Honour regional and international conventions of which Bhutan is a signatory;
- Contribute actively in the development of SAARC as a powerful and practical regional alliance that works for all its members;
- Continue working towards an amicable resolution to the issue of the people in the camps in Nepal;
- Promote bilateral, regional and multilateral trading arrangements that bring direct and tangible benefits to Bhutan;
- Enable our foreign services to promote our exports, tourism, and culture abroad, and also invite the network of Bhutan’s honorary consulates to assist in this endeavor;
- Support our foreign missions to strategically raise their effectiveness, and periodically review allowances of foreign service personnel to keep up with rising costs; and
- Deploy ICT capabilities aggressively to overcome the limited number of resident foreign missions Bhutan can afford to maintain.
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