China, Tibet govt-in-exile hold back-channel talks

New Delhi, July 17

A fresh round of back-channel talks between China and the Tibetan government-in-exile had taken place early this month. The talks had happened just a day before US President Joe Biden signed a legislation that seeks to press Beijing for a negotiated settlement to Tibet’s demand for greater autonomy.

News Agency PTI quoted Penpa Tsering, Sikyong or political head of the Tibet government-in-exile, saying the Tibetan side had joined the back-channel negotiations with a long-term perspective. “The last round of talks happened at the beginning of this month,” he said.

The Sikyong said that the talks took place in a third country and it was Beijing, which had reached out to the Tibet government-in-exile for negotiations.

The Sikyong, in an interview to The Tribune on June 21 this year, had ruled out seeking independence from China saying the demand was only for autonomy.

However, he today said, “We just cannot think of short term. We cannot only think about Xi Jinping. He will be there for sometime and then he will be gone. But we have to keep our communication (with Beijing) going”.

In April this year, Beijing had rejected media reports of back-channel talks with the Tibetan government-in-exile and said it would hold negotiations only with the representatives of the Dalai Lama. Nine rounds of China-Tibet talks had happened from 2002 to 2010 between the Dalai Lama’s representatives and the Chinese government. However, no formal talks had been held since then.

Tibetans quote the Dalai Lama’s words of 2001 that indicated the democratic process was the way forward. The Dalai Lama had said in 2001 that a day would come when he would not be there and so had set up the democratically-elected Central Tibetan Administration (CTA) headed by the Sikyong. Beijing does not recognise the CTA.

No expectation of positive outcome

There is ‘no expectation’ of a positive outcome from any future talks under the present Chinese dispensation led by Xi Jinping. — Penpa Tsering, Sikyong