Representatives of Tibet's exiled spiritual leader, the Dalai Lama, are preparing to travel to China later this month for talks as part of an ongoing dialogue with Chinese officials.
One of the Dalai Lama's envoys, Lodi Gyari, told VOA (Tibetan service in Washington) on Friday that he will travel to China next week for the eighth in a series of meetings the two sides have held since 2002.
An Indian media report on Friday quoted the Dalai Lama's private secretary, Tenzin Taklha, as saying the Nobel laureate's two envoys will take part in talks in late October. He did not indicate precisely when or where Lodi Gyari and Kelsang Gyaltsen will be meeting with officials in China.
The Washington-based International Campaign for Tibet has called on European leaders in Beijing for a summit with their Asian counterparts to press China to hold substantive talks with the Dalai Lama's envoys.
After the last round of talks in July, the envoys said further talks would be pointless given what they called China's lack of sincerity.
But, earlier this month, Kelsang Gyaltsen expressed hope that the Chinese side will seriously consider a proposal for the genuine autonomy for Tibet during the upcoming talks.
The talks come as Tibetan exiles from around the world are preparing for a special meeting in November to discuss the situation in Tibet.
In Tibet, peaceful demonstrations against Chinese rule erupted into violence in March of this year and protests quickly spread to Tibetan areas in neighboring provinces.
The Chinese government blamed militant exiles and the Dalai Lama for orchestrating what it says were separatist riots in Tibet. The Dalai Lama has long advocated autonomy for Tibet as a part of China, but some Tibetan exiles call for their homeland's complete independence.
གཟའ་སྤེན་པ། ༢༠༢༤/༠༤/༢༠