China wanted to split India, Bhutan through Doklam: Menon

NEW DELHI: China’s political goal was to “split” India and Bhutan over the Doklam standoff, former National Security Adviser Shivshankar Menon said today while appreciating the way the Government handled the issue.

Menon, who was NSA between 2010 and 2014 in the previous UPA rule, also said there was a need for an integrated approach in managing the country’s borders.

“One reason why we saw that activity in Doklam last year was not because they (China) had a clear military option or superiority but they had the political goal of splitting us from the Bhutanese,” he said at a conference here.

India and Bhutan have close ties and New Delhi has been providing military support to the country.

He said China wanted to “show the Bhutanese that India could not defend their security and also to arouse Bhutanese opinion (on it). I am glad we chose to react the way we did.” (AGENCIES)

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