US Under Secretary of State Uzra Zeya is coming to Nepal tomorrow. She is also the Chief of Staff for Civil Security, Democracy and Human Rights at the State Department. Uzra has 32 years of experience in the US Foreign Service.
US Under Secretary of State Uzra Zeya will hold separate meetings with Prime Minister Sher Bahadur Deuba, Foreign Minister Narayan Khadka, Home Minister Bal Krishna Khand and Chief Secretary Shankar Bairagi. She will also meet some human rights activists and civil society figures.
US Under Secretary of State Uzra Zeya arrived at the Dalai Lama’s residence in Dharamsala, Himachal Pradesh, India, just a day before her arrival in Nepal and delivered a message from the American people and President Biden. At that time, Zeya wished Lama’s good health. “We would like to express our gratitude for your message for world peace,” Zeya said during the meeting. The United States appears to be using the Dalai Lama as a strategic weapon to pose a security challenge to China. The Tibet Policy and Support Act, passed by the US Congress in 2020, explicitly states that the US Secretary of State will speak with Nepal in favor of the Tibetans. The United States is trying to persuade South Asian countries, including Nepal and India, to implement the Act. Zeya is coming to Nepal in connection with the implementation of the Act. Zeya will pressurize Nepal’s Prime Minister Sher Bahadur Deuba to agree to the act.
Zeya was appointed special coordinator for Tibetan affairs by US Secretary of State Antony Blinken on December 20. She has the responsibility to fight on the behalf of the United States for the human rights of Tibetans, as well as their religious, linguistic and cultural identities. She also has the responsibility to study the humanitarian needs of all Tibetans, including those in exile, to increase access to Tibet, and to study the environmental and water security challenges in the Tibetan Plateau.
At the moment, US administration officials and parliamentarians are in constant dialogue with the exiled Tibetan government. During her two-day stay in Nepal, she is scheduled to hold high-level talks.
US officials have been visiting Nepal in the past to look into the Tibet issue. They have been urgently raising the issue of Tibetans born in Nepal since 1990, who have not received identity cards, in government meetings. The United States has been pressuring Nepal not to obstruct the movement of the Tibetan to flee from Tibet and go to Dharamsala of India via Nepal. According to an unwritten agreement reached between the Government of Nepal and the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) in 1990 with US facilitation, the United States has been raising the issue of refugees entering and returning to India through Nepal.
