Bhutan is expecting to open its embassy in Canberra, the capital city of Australia by this July. The Foreign Minister, Dr Tandi Dorji, confirmed this in an interview with BBS earlier today.
Bhutan and Australia established formal diplomatic relations in 2002. Since then, the Australian government has been instrumental in providing a series of bilateral assistance in human resource development, tourism, education, gender, water security, and environmental conservation.
Currently, Bhutan has five Embassies, two Missions and two Consulates abroad.
“We have received all in-principle approval from the Australian government. Our office there will be very, very critical especially at this time with so many Bhutanese in Australia and also many waiting to go there. His Majesty The King has also commanded that this is very important and that we should do it as quickly as possible. So we are targeting that by July, we should have an ambassador down there so that we can immediately establish a chancery and then we can slowly expand the work of embassy as the Covid situation improves,” said Dr Tandi Dorji, the Foreign Minister.
Meanwhile, the finance ministry is working on the remuneration of the staff who will be posted there.
Currently, there are around 12,000 Bhutanese working and studying in Australia.
Pema Lhaden
