Press Release

Hon’ble Lyonchhen Dasho Tshering Tobgay paid an official visit to the headquarters of the European Union in Brussels from 5^th to 7^th March 2018.

During the visit, Lyonchhen met with Mr. Jean-Claude Juncker, President of the European Commission; Mr. Antonio Tajani, President of the European Parliament; Mr. Neven Mimica, Commissioner for International Cooperation and Development; and Mr. Christos Stylianides, Commissioner for Humanitarian Aid and Crisis Management.  Lyonchhen also had a luncheon meeting at the European Parliament with Vice President Ms. Heidi Hautala and Members of the Parliamentary Delegation for relations with countries of South Asia.

During the meetings, the two sides expressed satisfaction with the excellent state of bilateral ties and the successful cooperation between Bhutan and the EU and discussed ways to further enhance the relationship. The EU leaders expressed their admiration to Bhutan for its remarkable achievement in the socio-economic development and good governance, and assured of continued EU support to Bhutan.

Lyonchhen informed the EU leaders that the purpose of his visit was to convey the sincere appreciation of the people and the Royal Government of Bhutan to the EU for their longstanding generous support to Bhutan’s socio-economic development and also for their commitment to continue the support.

The European Union has been an important development partner for Bhutan since 1982. Formal diplomatic relations between Bhutan and the European Union was established on 9^th August 1985.