Senior officials from the US State Department and the White House met yesterday with the Dalai Lama in New York and "reaffirmed the US commitment to protect the human rights of Tibetans", the State Department said, as quoted by Reuters and BTA.
The meeting with the 89-year-old spiritual leader of Tibetan Buddhism, living in exile, is likely to irritate China, which considers him a dangerous separatist and opposes contacts by officials from any country with him, the agency noted.< /p>
The Dalai Lama, who fled to India in 1959 after a failed uprising against Chinese rule in Tibet, traveled to New York in June for treatment on his knees - his first visit to the United States since 2017.
A State Department statement said Uzra Zeya, the US Under Secretary of State for Human Rights and Special Coordinator for Tibet Affairs, traveled to New York for an audience with the Dalai Lama, joined by the director of White House Human Rights Kelly Razuk.
Zeya "conveyed on behalf of President Biden best wishes for His Holiness's good health and reaffirmed the US commitment to upholding the human rights of Tibetans and supporting efforts to preserve their distinctive historical, linguistic, cultural and religious heritage", the message says.