Tibet remains key to India's security: TGIE

The Tibetan government-in-exile (TGIE) on Monday reminded New Delhi that Tibet remains  key to India's security against a rising and expansionist China.

Lobsang Sangay, the president of the TGIE, said Tibet was to India what the "Great Wall" had once been to China.

"We (Tibet) were your (India's) 'Great Wall'. The Tibetan Plateau and the mountains of Himalayas were your 'Great Wall'. You must help us make the Great Wall stronger," Sangay said, while taking part in a panel discussion  titled 'India and Tibet: Ancient Ties, Current Bonds' in New Delhi on Monday.

He said that China posed a common challenge to both Tibet and India.

His comment came in the backdrop of widespread speculation that India was shifting from its traditional support to Dalai Lama and the exiled Tibetans in order to avert hurting the sensitivity of China.

What fuelled the speculation was a note issued by Cabinet Secretary P K Sinha late last month, asking "senior leaders" and "government functionaries" in the states, as well as at the Centre, to stay away from events attended by Dalai Lama.

The TGIE is holding a "Thank you, India" programme in Dharamshala and New Delhi to mark the beginning of the 60th year after Dalai Lama escaped to India in the wake of occupation of Tibet by China in 1959.