Senior US officials meet with Dalai Lama in New York

Tibetan spiritual leader the Dalai Lama, Patron of Children in Crossfire, gestures during a press conference in Londonderry, Northern Ireland September 11, 2017. /Clodagh Kilcoyne/File Photo

WASHINGTON - Senior officials from the U.S. State Department and the White House met with the Dalai Lama in New York on Wednesday and "reaffirmed the U.S. commitment to advancing the human rights of Tibetans," the State Department said.

The meeting with the 89-year-old exiled spiritual leader of Tibetan Buddhism will likely irritate China, which considers him a dangerous separatist and opposes contact by officials of any country with him.

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 medical treatment on his knees, his first visit to the United States since 2017.

A State Department statement said Uzra Zeya, the U.S. undersecretary of state for human rights and special coordinator for Tibetan issues, traveled to New York for an audience with the Dalai Lama, joined by the White House director for human rights, Kelly Razzouk.

It said Zeya "conveyed, on behalf of President Biden, best wishes for His Holiness's good health and reaffirmed the U.S. commitment to advancing the human rights of Tibetans and supporting efforts to preserve their distinct historical, linguistic, cultural, and religious heritage."

Zeya discussed U.S. efforts to address human rights abuses in Tibet and support for a resumption of dialogue between China and the Dalai Lama, the statement said.

A spokesperson for the Chinese Embassy in Washington, Liu Pengyu, said China was "gravely concerned" over the meeting and urged the U.S. to have no contact with the Dalai Lama.

A group of U.S. lawmakers met the Dalai Lama in India before his U.S. trip and said they would not allow China to influence the choice of his successor.

Last month, China expressed strong opposition to a U.S. law signed by President Joe Biden that presses Beijing to resolve a dispute over Tibet's demands for greater autonomy and vowed to "firmly defend" its interests.

The Dalai Lama has met U.S. officials, including U.S. presidents, during previous visits to the U.S., but Biden has not met him since taking office in 2021.

In 2020, Biden criticized then President Donald Trump for being the only president in three decades who had not met or spoken with the Tibetan spiritual leader, calling it "disgraceful."

Wednesday's meeting comes at a time when Biden has sought to stabilize rocky ties with China ahead of a presidential election on Nov. 5, in which Vice President Kamala Harris is pitted against Trump.