India PM Narendra Modi Calls China Nemesis the Dalai Lama to Wish Him Happy Birthday

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi publically wished the Dalai Lama good health on his birthday on Wednesday, the Times of India reported on Thursday, noting that Modi may have intended the gesture as a signal to Beijing that New Delhi maintains a firm diplomatic footing in the Himalayas despite an ongoing border dispute between India and China along unmarked sections of the mountain range.

“Conveyed 87th birthday greetings to His Holiness the @DalaiLama over phone earlier today. We pray for his long life and good health [sic],” Prime Minister Modi wrote in a statement shared by his official Twitter account on July 6.

The 14th Dalai Lama is a Buddhist monk considered by Tibetans as both a spiritual and political leader of Tibet, which was an ancient Himalayan kingdom governed by Buddhist monks for centuries before China’s ruling Communist Party forcibly seized the territory in 1950. The Dalai Lama has been living in exile in northern India, which borders both Tibet and sections of China, since 1959 after he led a failed uprising in Tibet against Beijing. China’s government currently administers Tibet and officially refers to it as the “Tibet Autonomous Region” or “Xizang.”

The Chinese Communist Party regards the Dalai Lama as “a dangerous ‘splittist’, or separatist, and frowns on any engagement with him,” according to Reuters. This designation conveys added significance to Modi’s phone call to the Dalai Lama on Wednesday, along with his choice to publically announce the interaction.

Modi similarly telephoned the Dalai Lama on his birthday last year to wish him good health on the occasion. The Indian leader issued a statement via his official Twitter page confirming the talk.

“Spoke on phone to His Holiness the @DalaiLama to convey greetings on his 86th birthday. We wish him a long and healthy life,” Prime Minister Modi wrote in a statement on July 6, 2021.

New Delhi’s acknowledgment of the Dalai Lama on his birthday over the past two years has come in direct response to India’s continued involvement in an unofficial border standoff with China along their unmarked Himalayan boundary. The dispute began in June 2020 in northern India’s Ladakh state when China’s People’s Liberation Army (PLA) ordered a contingent of troops to attack an Indian border regiment in a deadly overnight operation. The western Himalayan ambush killed 20 Indian soldiers and at least four Chinese troops, though subsequent reports suggested the PLA lost as many as 38 service members in the skirmish.

India and China’s ongoing border standoff has provided a fresh backdrop for diplomatic relations between the two Asian giants, which are complex and prone to fluctuation. India’s economy has grown heavily dependent on China for manufacturing and imports in recent years, a phenomenon Modi has aimed to deter through a “Self-Reliant India” initiative that promotes the domestic production and purchase of Indian goods.

New Delhi’s diplomatic attitude toward Beijing has ebbed and flowed in recent years in accordance with India’s evolving political agenda.

“In March 2018, in an unusual departure from its stand on Tibetans in exile, the [Indian] government sent out a note asking ‘senior leaders’ and ‘government functionaries’ of the Centre [Indian federal government] and states to stay away from events planned by the ‘Tibetan leadership in India’ to mark the start of 60 years in exile of the Dalai Lama,” the Indian Express recalled on July 7.

“It underlined that this is a ‘very sensitive time’ for bilateral relations with China. Soon after, Modi held the first informal leaders’ summit with Chinese President Xi Jinping in Wuhan in April 2018,” the Indian newspaper noted.