Guwahati, May 14 (IANS): Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma is keen to increase trade and further improve connectivity with neighbouring Bhutan, officials said on Friday.

A senior official of Assam Chief Minister's Office (CMO) said that Bhutan's Consul General, Phub Tshering, on Friday called on Sarma and both of them talked on a gamut of issues of mutual interests.

Sarma advocated constant people-to-people contact between Assam and Bhutan, increasing the trade volume and building new roads to take relations to a greater height.

"Chief Minister Sarma, while extending his gratitude to Bhutan's King and the Prime Minister for their statesmanship which helped in strengthening the bilateral relations between India and Bhutan with special focus on Assam, reiterated his government's keen interests in increasing the mutual engagements of Assam and Bhutan," an official statement said.

Tshering also sought the Chief Minister's help for the Bhutanese students to come to Assam for higher studies.