Geshe Dorji Damdul met US Secretary of State Antony Blinken as a part of a civil society delegation

New Delhi: China sees the Dalai Lama as the greatest of their enemies who they cannot overpower, said Geshe Dorji Damdul, the former interpreter of the Dalai Lama who met US Secretary of State Antony Blinken on his India visit.

Geshe Dorji Damdul met Antony Blinken in New Delhi as a part of a civil society delegation. In an exclusive interview with India Today TV, Geshe Dorji Damdul, who is also the director of Tibet House in New Delhi, said, "China sees the Dalai Lama as the greatest of their enemies who they cannot overpower. Most importantly, the common people believe that the world is behind the Dalai Lama and not China."

Geshe Dorji Damdul also called upon democratic countries like the US and India to come together to ensure that China does not continue with its aggression. "India is an incredibly huge country which has inherited the principle of Ahimsa and the US is the champion of democracy. So these two countries must come together and see how much they can implement this universal ethics as envisioned by the Dalai Lama in the education system," he said.

On the Chinese aggression in Tibet, Geshe Dorji Damdul said, "Tibetans are under the gun. If you say anything about the Dalai Lama, you are arrested."

"When Xi Jinping (Chinese president) visited Lhasa (Tibet's capital) recently, people welcomed him with fear. When the representatives of the Dalai Lama visited Tibet around 20-30 years ago, you could see how people just took out their hearts to welcome them. Even the common people in China visited to take their blessings," Geshe Dorji Damdul said.

On China's warning to the US over its meddling in the Tibet matter, Geshe Dorji Damdul said, "If the world is not seeing things that are well ahead of time, then what happened to Tibet can be repeated in many other countries. And then the world may regret."

"Eventually, the expansionism of Communist Chinese can really go out of control. If it (China) militarily and economically goes ahead of America then the world would be in their hands," he added.

The meeting between a Tibetan leader and the US was the biggest after the 2016 meeting between then US president Barack Obama and the Dalai Lama in Washington.

On his maiden India visit, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken met Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Foreign Minister S Jaishankar, and NSA chief Ajit Doval in Delhi. Secretary Blinken appreciated the increasing convergence between India and US on a wide range of bilateral and multilateral issues, and the commitment of both strategic partners to convert this convergence into concrete and practical cooperation.