High-level US Congressional delegation visiting India next week to meet Dalai Lama

New Delhi: Chair of US House Foreign Affairs Committee Michael McCaul and former House speaker Nancy Pelosi are set to be part of a US congressional delegation that is set to visit Dharamsala next week to meet Tibetan spiritual leader the Dalai Lama.

The high-level US bipartisan delegation will be in Dharamsala on June 18 and 19, authoritative sources said on Friday.

The visit of the influential US lawmakers to the Himalayan town is taking place ahead of the Dalai Lama's planned trip to the US for medical treatment.

Tibet's government-in-exile is based in Dharamshala and it represents over one lakh Tibetans living in around 30 countries. The US has strongly been supporting the Tibetan cause and condemning all oppression and coercion of Tibetans by China.

The US Congress this month passed a legislation calling for a peaceful resolution of the dispute over the status and governance of Tibet. The 'Resolve Tibet Act' also calls on Beijing to resume dialogue with the Dalai Lama.

American lawmakers have regularly been visiting Dharamsala in reflection of Washington's support to the Tibetan cause.

From 2002 to 2010, the Dalai Lama's representatives and the Chinese government held nine rounds of dialogue that did not produce any concrete outcomes. No formal talks have been held since then.

In its talks with China between 2002 and 2010, the Tibetan side pitched genuine autonomy for the Tibetan people in line with the Dalai Lama's middle-way policy. The Dalai Lama has been favouring resolution of the Tibetan issue through dialogue.

In April, the Sikyong or political head of Tibet's government-in-exile, Penpa Tsering said his administration has opened back-channel talks with Beijing to explore ways to find a resolution to the Tibet issue.

The remarks were seen as signs of willingness by both sides to re-engage over a decade after the formal dialogue process hit a dead end in view of anti-China protests in Tibet and Beijing's hardline approach towards the Buddhist region.

Days after Tsering's comments, Beijing asserted it would talk only with the representatives of the Dalai Lama and not with the government-in-exile.

After a failed anti-Chinese uprising in 1959, the 14th Dalai Lama fled Tibet and came to India where he set up the government-in-exile. China has in the past accused the Dalai Lama of indulging in "separatist" activities and trying to split Tibet and considers him a divisive figure.

However, the Tibetan spiritual leader has insisted that he is not seeking independence but "genuine autonomy for all Tibetans living in the three traditional provinces of Tibet" under the "Middle-Way approach".

Relations between the two sides strained further due to protests against China in Tibetan areas in 2008.