As I see itTibet again causes friction between China and India, and it doesn’t bode well for ties

India’s defence ministry has released photos confirming the Dalai Lama was flown by military helicopter to a village in disputed border region

Tibet has long been a thorny bilateral issue, and the relationship was already deeply strained following a deadly border clash two years ago

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The Dalai Lama waves during a gathering in Leh, Ladakh on July 28. Beijing sees the exiled Tibetan spiritual leader as a separatist. Photo: AFP

Published: 6:27pm, 16 Aug 2022

While Beijing has been busy trying to shore up support for its one-China policy, another headache has resurfaced in its troubled ties with New Delhi.

India’s defence ministry released photos last week confirming that the Dalai Lama had been flown in a military helicopter to a remote Himalayan village in the disputed border region of eastern Ladakh.

Beijing was already irked by Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s phone call to the exiled Tibetan spiritual leader last month for his 87th birthday. In response, Chinese foreign ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian said India should fully understand the “anti-China and separatist nature” of the Dalai Lama and “stop using Tibet-related issues to interfere in China’s internal affairs”.

Beijing was irked by Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s birthday phone call to the Dalai Lama last month. Photo: Bloomberg

Most of the long, unmarked border between China and India is located in Tibet, and the region has long been a thorny bilateral issue – even after India officially recognised Tibet as part of China in 2003.

Beijing has often accused the Modi government of playing the Tibet card to woo its nationalist supporters in India, where the Dalai Lama and a Tibetan diaspora have been living in exile. It reacted with fury in 2017 when the Dalai Lama visited Arunachal Pradesh, parts of which China claims as southern Tibet, with Beijing saying New Delhi had done “serious damage” to bilateral ties.

As the Tibet issue again causes friction, it does not augur well for a complicated relationship that has been deeply strained since a deadly border clash in eastern Ladakh two years ago.

Beijing has voiced concerns about New Delhi’s strategic pivot towards Washington, with Foreign Minister Wang Yi calling on his Indian counterpart S. Jaishankar to help get bilateral ties back on track, a day after Modi’s phone call to the Dalai Lama.