Govt okays Dalai Lama's visit to Arunachal

China fumes over US envoy's tour to frontier state

The government cleared the Dalai Lama’s proposed visit to Arunachal Pradesh early next year, although the recent tour by US envoy to India, Richard Verma, to the state already riled China.

New Delhi on Monday dismissed Beijing’s objection to Verma’s October 21 visit to Tawang in Arunachal Pradesh, asserting that the frontier state is an integral part of India.

The government also gave its nod to Tibet’s exiled spiritual leader the Dalai Lama’s proposed visit to Arunachal Pradesh, yet another move sure to raise the hackles in Beijing.

China on Monday said that it was “firmly opposed” to Verma’s visit to Arunachal Pradesh, as it was a “disputed region between India and China”. 

The US ambassador to India visited Arunachal Pradesh to take part in the Tawang festival on October 21.

He was invited by the state government headed by Chief Minister Pema Khandu.

China does not recognise Arunachal Pradesh as a part of India and claims over 83,500 sq km of territory in the state as its own.

“The US ambassador visited Arunachal Pradesh, a state which is an integral part of the country to which he is accredited. There is nothing unusual in it,” Vikas Swarup, official spokesperson of the Ministry of External Affairs, said.

His comment came after Beijing stated that “interference” by the US in the boundary dispute between India and China would “disturb the hard-won peace and tranquillity” in border areas and “stir up or heighten tensions”.

The tour by US ambassador to India and New Delhi’s nod to the proposed visit by the Dalai Lama to Arunachal Pradesh once again brought the focus on the long-pending territorial dispute between India and China, even as several other irritants of late came up to strain the bilateral relations between the two neighbours.

Khandu met the Dalai Lama at Dharamshala in Himachal Pradesh (the seat of the Tibetan government in exile) on October 9 and invited him to visit the state in March 2017.