"India and Bhutan Review Development Cooperation During Ministerial Visit"
Treaty of Friendship and Cooperation
1949 India-Bhutan treaty, revised in 2007, forming the legal basis of bilateral ties.
Neighbourhood-first policy
India's foreign policy priority of strategic and developmental engagement with South Asian neighbours.
India-Bhutan relations rest on the Treaty of Friendship and Cooperation, first signed in 1949 and substantially revised in 2007. The revision removed language requiring Bhutan to be "guided" by India in foreign affairs and replaced it with a framework of mutual respect and close consultation on matters affecting national interests. This treaty remains the legal foundation for the wide-ranging cooperation the two countries continue to build upon.
India has long been Bhutan's largest development partner and the principal source of external assistance for its Five Year Plans, a role that predates India's formal articulation of the neighbourhood-first policy. Hydropower has historically anchored this partnership: India has financed and co-developed several hydroelectric projects in Bhutan on a government-to-government basis, buying surplus power and providing Bhutan a dependable revenue stream. This hydropower model has often been cited as an example of how India's development assistance to smaller neighbours differs from purely commercial or conditional foreign aid, since it combines infrastructure financing with long-term energy off-take arrangements.
Over the past decade, this partnership has expanded well beyond hydropower into connectivity, trade facilitation, space cooperation, and, increasingly, digital public infrastructure. Bhutan's monarchy has also driven new flagship initiatives, most notably the Gelephu Mindfulness City, a special administrative and economic region conceived as a hub for sustainable development, for which India has committed connectivity and infrastructure support.
The institutional architecture of India-Bhutan cooperation operates through periodic high-level exchanges, review of Bhutan's Five Year Plans, and sector-specific agreements. Bhutan's current 13th Five Year Plan (2024-29) receives substantial financial backing from India across health, education, and rural infrastructure, continuing a decades-old pattern where Indian assistance is aligned with Bhutan's own planning cycle rather than externally imposed priorities.
Energy cooperation follows a distinct model: rather than transferring hydropower technology alone, India extends concessional financing, including Lines of Credit, for specific hydropower projects, and Indian public and private firms are directly engaged in construction. The Joint Vision on Energy Partnership signed in 2024 formalised this cooperation into a longer-term framework covering both large and small hydropower schemes. …
India-Africa digital partnership is achieving mutual respect, co-development and long-term institutional partnerships. Elaborate.
Consider the following statements regarding India-Bhutan relations:
1.The bilateral relationship is governed by a Treaty of Friendship and Cooperation, originally signed in 1949 and revised in 2007.
2.Bhutan was the first country outside India to adopt UPI-based cross-border digital payments.
Which of the statements given above is/are correct?
Match List-I (Initiative) with List-II (Description) and select the correct answer using the codes given below:
List-I
A.International Big Cat Alliance (IBCA)
B.Coalition for Disaster Resilient Infrastructure (CDRI)
C.Gelephu Mindfulness City
List-II
1.India-led initiative for conservation of big cat species
2.Multilateral platform for climate and disaster-resilient infrastructure
3.Bhutan's flagship special administrative and economic region
Bhutan's ongoing National Development Plan, the 13th Five Year Plan, covers which of the following periods?
Consider the following statements:
1.The Joint Vision on Energy Partnership between India and Bhutan was signed in 2024.
2.India extended a concessional Line of Credit of ₹4,000 crore for energy projects in Bhutan.
Which of the statements given above is/are correct?
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