Settle Tibet first, says Dalai Lama aide

DHARAMSALA - It is not possible to resolve the India-China border dispute unless the Tibetan issue is settled, an aide to the Tibetan spiritual leader the Dalai Lama said Thursday.

“It would be wishful thinking on the part of India and China to hope for a lasting solution to their border dispute” as long as the Tibet issue was not resolved, said Tibetan Prime Minister-in-exile Samdhong Rinpoche.

“In fact, there is no Sino-India border. Tibet is intertwined with the boundary problem between these two countries. There needs to be a political will in both India and China to resolve the boundary dispute,” Rinpoche was quoted as saying on the Tibetan government-in-exile website.

“The CTA (Central Tibetan Administration) wants a stable relationship between the two Asian giants,” he said.

The Dalai Lama, who fled Tibet in 1959, is based in this hill town. India is also home to some 100,000 Tibetans.