Relationship dossier
Bhutan
India
Relationship assessment
Bhutan and India maintain a close partnership grounded in treaty ties and extensive development, hydropower and security cooperation.
Bhutan toward India
+80Bhutan has maintained treaty-based cooperation with India, including through the revised 2007 Treaty of Friendship, and participates in extensive bilateral hydropower and development cooperation. Bhutan's foreign policy remains under its own sovereign authority.
India toward Bhutan
+80India provides substantial development assistance to Bhutan and has supported bilateral hydropower projects, including through electricity purchases and infrastructure cooperation. India has also supported Bhutan's security interests, notably during the 2017 Doklam crisis.
Overall relationship
+80A durable treaty relationship and extensive cooperation on development, hydropower, trade and security underpin the partnership. India's sustained support for Bhutan's development and Bhutan's participation in bilateral projects reinforce close ties, while the 2007 treaty frames cooperation between sovereign states.
How to read these scores
Scores are rough judgments, not objective measurements or current verification. Directional scores describe government policy and conduct, not public opinion. The overall score is an independent estimate, never an average.
- −100
- Extreme sustained hostility
- −50
- Substantially adversarial
- 0
- Mixed or neutral, supported by knowledge
- +50
- Substantially cooperative
- +100
- Exceptionally close sustained partnership
“Not assessed” means there is no recorded score. Pair existence makes no claim about diplomatic recognition or established relations.
Relationship context
Overview
Bhutan and India maintain a close, long-standing partnership shaped by the 1949 Treaty of Friendship, revised in 2007, and extensive cooperation on hydropower, trade, development assistance and security. India is a major development partner and purchaser of Bhutanese hydropower. The relationship is close while Bhutan retains sovereign authority over its foreign policy.
Key developments
Bhutan and India signed the Treaty of Friendship, establishing a framework for bilateral relations.
The two countries revised the Treaty of Friendship, reflecting Bhutan's sovereign foreign-policy role while maintaining cooperation.
India and Bhutan cooperated in addressing the Doklam crisis, amid Bhutan's objection to Chinese road construction in territory it claimed.
Major uncertainties
- The current scope and implementation of individual hydropower and development agreements are unclear.
- The details of bilateral coordination on regional security issues are limited.