Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi voiced her concern as the move comes in a month when she led a high-powered Congressional delegation to Dharamsala to meet the Dalai Lama and vowed support.
"Leader Pelosi is very concerned about the zeroing out of aid to the Tibetan community in the Trump budget proposal," PTI quoted Drew Hammill, spokesman for Pelosi, as saying.
Experts in India insist that it is too early to conclude the move as the Trump administration's policy on Tibet.
"It is surprising but I don't see it as a change in US policy towards Tibet. It is too early as the Trump administration's policy on various international and foreign policy issues continues to evolve. And let's not also ignore that the Tibetan issue is long dead and no major country, including the US contradicts the Chinese stand on Tibet. A lot of support for the Tibetan community comes from Congressional funding," P. Stobdan, India's former Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary to Kyrgyzstan and noted national security affairs expert, said. Stobdan is currently a Senior Fellow at the Institute for Defence Studies and Analyses, New Delhi.
The US policy towards Tibet is currently driven by the Tibetan Policy Act of 2002, which was signed by the last Republican President, George W. Bush. The act establishes the State Department position of United States Special Coordinator for Tibetan Issues and states that the Special Coordinator's "central objective" is "to promote substantive dialogue between the Government of the People's Republic of China and the Dalai Lama or his representatives".
