U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken met a representative of the Dalai Lama in New Delhi on Wednesday;a move likely to anger Beijing which considers the Tibetan spiritual leader adangerous separatist.
Blinken also metbriefly with Ngodup Dongchung, a representative of the Dalai Lama. A StateDepartment spokesperson said, "Secretary Blinken had an opportunity tomeet briefly this morning in New Delhi with a representative of His Holinessthe Dalai Lama."
In his openingremarks, Mr. Blinken spoke of the “great challenges” for all democracies in theworld, particularly India, and the U.S., where Congress has been holdingcommittee hearings on the January 6 attack on the Capitol House by pro-Trumpprotesters. Mr. Blinken said the India-U.S. relationship was one of the “mostimportant” in the world whose people were “connected by shared values”.
“The Indian peopleand the American people believe in human dignity and equality of opportunity,the rule of law, fundamental freedoms, including freedom of religion andbelief,” Mr. Blinken said in remarks released to the media.
“We believe that allpeople deserve to have a voice in their government and be treated with respectno matter who they are,” he added. The Union government’s response to recentprotests and dissent were a part of the discussion that followed.