US lawmakers visit Dalai Lama, highlight situation in Tibet
DHARAMSALA, India: A US Congressional delegation visited the Dalai Lama at his headquarters in India yesterday, seeking to draw world attention to human rights in Tibet as President Donald Trump eyes warmer ties with China.
House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi flew with a bipartisan delegation to the Himalayan hill town where the 81-year- old Buddhist leader is based, on a trip likely to rile Beijing which regards him as a dangerous splittist.
“As we visit His Holiness the Dalai Lama, our bipartisan delegation comes in his spirit of faith and peace. We come on this visit to be inspired by His Holiness and demonstrate our commitment to the Tibetan people, to their faith, their culture and their language,” Pelosi said.
The lawmakers’ visit comes at a delicate time for Trump. Campaigning for election, Trump had cast China as a trade adversary and currency manipulator, but he now seeks President Xi Jinping’s support to restrain nuclear-armed North Korea.
After Trump’s election last November, the Dalai Lama said he was keen to meet the incoming US leader. It now looks unlikely the Nobel peace laureate will get a White House invite – an honour accorded by recent American presidents – anytime soon.
Secretary of State Rex Tillerson last week played down the role of human rights in US foreign policy, raising fears the Dalai Lama, who fled to India from Tibet in 1959, could lose one of his last friends in the West. — Reuters