21st round of Bhutan-China border talks to be held on Thursday

Bhutan and China will hold their next round of boundary talks here on August 22, it was announced today.
The eight-member Chinese delegation led by Vice Foreign Minister Liu Zhenrin will arrive here tomorrow for the 21st round of boundary talks between the two countries, a Foreign Ministry statement said.
The Bhutanese side will be led by Foreign Minister Rinzin Dorje.
The 20th Round of Boundary Talks was held in Thimphu in August 2012.
The two countries, which have not established diplomatic relations, conducted the border talks last year with Bhutan expressing its wish to work with China to solve the boundary issue as soon as possible.

Despite the absence of diplomatic ties, the two countries have maintained political contacts, economic cooperation and people-to-people exchanges over the past several years.

During the intervening period, the fifth Expert Group meeting was held in the Tibetan capital of Lhasa on October 18 last year.
The Boundary negotiations between the Bhutanese government and the government of the People's Republic of China are guided by the four principles agreed to in the 1988 and the 1998 Agreement on the Maintenance of Peace and Tranquility in the Bhutan-China Border Areas.
China shares a contiguous border of 470 kilometres with Bhutan and its territorial disputes with the country have been a source of potential conflict.