US lawmakers to meet Dalai Lama on India trip next week

McCaul, Pelosi and a group of other US lawmakers will visit Dharamsala – the town in the northern Indian Himalayas where the 88-year-old Tibetan monk lives in exile – on June 18 and 19, an official of the Tibetan government in-exile, known as the Central Tibetan Administration, told Reuters.

McCaul’s office did not respond immediately to a request for comment. Pelosi’s office said it could not confirm or deny any coming travel because of long-standing security policies.

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

Any such engagement would likely anger Beijing at a time when the US and China have sought to stabilise rocky ties.

Last week, China’s US embassy spokesman Liu Pengyu said Beijing “firmly opposes any anti-China separatist activities conducted by Dalai in any capacity or name in any country, and opposes any forms of contact by officials of any country with him”.