US Secretary of State Antony Blinken meets Dalai Lama's representative in Delhi

In a development that China will be keenly noting, US Secretary of State Blinken met Dalai Lama's representative Ngodup Dongchung during his visit to India'scapital New Delhi.

Spokesperson of Tibetan Governmentin Exile (Central Tibetan Administration) Tenzin Lekshay confirmed to WION that both sides met briefly on Wednesday morning in India's national capital.

This is the second such meeting between the US government and the Tibetan side in months.

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In November, Lobsang Sangay, the former head of the Tibetan government in exile, visited the White House, the first such visit in six decades.

Later during the meeting with Civil society members, Geshe Dorjee Damdul, Director of Tibet House, Cultural Centre of His Holiness the Dalai Lama was present. The picture was tweeted from the US Secretary of state's Twitter handle as well.

Blinken's meeting with Dongchung is the most significant contact with the Tibetan leadership since the Dalai Lama met then-president Barack Obama in Washington in 2016.

Geshe Dorjee Damdul is considered close to the 14th Dalai Lama andhas accompanied him on various visits andacted as his interpreter.

The development comes even as the US has been calling expressing its concernover human rights issues in Tibet and therestive Xinjiang province

Chinese troops seized Tibet in 1950 in what Beijing calls a "peaceful liberation". In 1959, the Dalai Lama fled into exile in India following a failed uprising against Chinese rule.

The CTA and Tibetan advocacy groups have received a boost in international support in recent months amid rising criticism of China's human rights record, particularly from the United States.