washington — Senior U.S. officials met with the Dalai Lama in New York on Wednesday, according to a State Department statement, a rare high-level direct meeting between Washington and the exiled Tibetan spiritual leader.

The Dalai Lama, who is denounced by Beijing as a separatist, met with senior U.S. State Department official Uzra Zeya and White House National Security Council official Kelly Razzouk in New York, where he is visiting to receive medical treatment.

During the meeting, Zeya “reaffirmed the U.S. commitment to advancing the human rights of Tibetans and supporting efforts to preserve their distinct historical, linguistic, cultural, and religious heritage.”

Beijing imposes strict controls on Tibet, which it considers an inalienable part of its territory, and denounces the Dalai Lama, who advocates for greater autonomy for Tibet, as a rebel.

During the meeting on Wednesday, Zeya also discussed U.S. “support for resuming dialogue between the PRC and His Holiness and his representatives,” the statement said, using the abbreviation for the People’s Republic of China.

Talks between Beijing and Tibetan leaders have been frozen since 2010.

The Dalai Lama, 89, received knee surgery in New York this year, saying he was recovering well in a statement released in July.

He stepped down as his people’s political head in 2011, passing the baton of secular power to a government chosen democratically by some 130,000 Tibetans around the world.

In July, China sanctioned a U.S. lawmaker for “interference” over his support for Tibetans, a month after the U.S. Congress passed a law strengthening support for Tibet and senior U.S. lawmakers met with the Dalai Lama in India.

China took control of Tibet in 1951 before the Dalai Lama fled into exile in 1959.

Tibet had previously been largely autonomous, following the fall of the Qing dynasty, which lasted three centuries.
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