The ongoing military aggression across the Himalayas is not the first by China and it won’t be the last. India never shared a border with China—it is the Indo-Tibet border. Knowing its strategic significance, India should consider the geopolitical importance of Tibet as one of its core issues. These were the views of Central Tibetan Administration (CTA) President Lobsang Sangay, globally known as Prime Minister-in-exile, regarding a Himalayan border clash between India and China that left 20 Indian troops dead in June. “China recognised Tibet as a core issue in terms of China’s national security and development since 2008, you know, for instance, the Chinese President Xi Jinping has been on record to say China’s national security and stability depends on security and stability of Tibet,” Sangay, the youngest to head the government-in-exile, told IANS in an exclusive interview in Dharamsala.

“That’s how Tibet is geopolitically important for China. Knowing the strategic significance of Tibet, India should consider the geopolitical importance of Tibet as one of its core issues,” he said. On China’s latest military aggression is just the tip of the iceberg, the 51-year-old Harvard educated democratically elected CTA head, said: “Ongoing China’s military aggressions across the Himalayas are not the first military aggression by China and it won’t be the last. “As matter of fact, India never shared a border with China, it’s the Indo-Tibet border. Tibet served as a zone of peace in the form of a buffer between India and China for more than thousand years ago. Today, it is no longer the case since China’s invasion of Tibet in 1950.