Wednesday, 2 November,2011
Washington, DC.: “Mr. Kalon Tripa, the Senator is now ready to receive you” called out the staff of Senator Joseph Lieberman as the Kalon Tripa, Dr. Lobsang Sangay and his team along with Senator John McCain waited at the reception area of Senator Lieberman’s office. Soon Senators Tom Udall ofNew Mexico(Democrat) and John Barrasso, Republican fromWyomingjoined the group as well. Once everyone was seated, his staff served freshly brewed Tibetan butter tea. The bookshelves in the office was festooned with prayers flags. It was clear the Senator had gone out of his way to welcome the Kalon Tripa. This meeting, one of the more important ones during the Kalon Tripa’s current visit toWashington,DC, was hosted jointly by Senators Lieberman and McCain and their staff.
Senator McCain wasted no time in getting the ball rolling by asking the Kalon Tripa “What can we do to help you?” The four Senators and Kalon Tripa spent nearly forty minutes in an intimate and productive discussion where they discussed the current situation in Ngaba, political transition in Dharamsala and other related issues. Senators Lieberman and McCain extended their strong support to His Holiness and the Kalon Tripa. Senator McCain later tweeted on the meeting and said “Met today with Lobsang Sangay, Kalon Tripa of the Central Tibetan Adminsitration – an outstanding leader of a country that deserves its freedom” The Senator has 1,738,277 twitter followers. Please check out: http://twitter.com/#!/senjohnmccain
The other two important meetings on day two of the trip were a meeting with the US-China Economic and Security Review Commission and a meeting with the staff of the House Foreign Affairs Committee. The Commission, set up by the US Congress in 2000, is responsible for looking at trends inChinaespecially as they relate to economic and security matters. Five Commissioners attended the meeting with the Kalon Tripa. Dr. Sangay requested the Commission to consider includingTibetunder their mandate and the Commission expressed interest in reaching out to the CTA for a water and resource management hearing to be convened in January 2012.
The Kalon Tripa started the day with an interview with Radio Free Asia in the morning. The evening ended with a dinner organized by the International Campaign for Tibet (ICT) where ICT invited some of their members and donors and they were invited to support educational and developmental projects operated by the Central Tibetan Administration inIndia.
