NEW DELHI: Taken aback at the tenor of Indian protests over its attempt to censure the Indian government for the Dalai Lama’s visit to Arunachal Pradesh from Sunday, China has toned down its rhetoric, even calling the recent meeting in Thailand between the Indian and Chinese Prime Ministers a “gentle breeze” that has cooled bilateral relations. Instead, a Chinese government spokesperson said the Dalai Lama was trying to create differences between India and China. Despite US President Barack Obama putting off a meeting with the Dalai Lama in view of his forthcoming visit to China, senior American officials endorsed the Tibetan spiritual leader’s right to visit Tawang monastery and said a meeting between the Dalai Lama and President Obama would be scheduled before the end of the year. “The Dalai Lama is a religious leader. He is visiting the (Tawang) monastery. From our perspective, that is one of the roles that he plays,” US Under Secretary for democracy and global affairs Maria Otero told reporters in New Delhi. Otero is visiting India for the annual meeting of the US-India global issues forum, which she co-chaired with Foreign Secretary Nirupama Rao on Thursday. She is also the special US coordinator on Tibetan affairs. Otero said that during the visit of President Obama’s Special Envoy Valerie Jarett to Dharamsala (the Dalai Lama’s headquarters) in September, the Dalai Lama had been invited to meet Obama. “We are still working out the dates, but the meeting will be this year,” Otero said on Friday. China has strongly objected to the Dalai Lama’s visit to Arunachal Pradesh, which it claims as its territory, and in particular, to the Tawang monastery. The Tibetan monk, who has lived in India since he escaped from Tibet 50 years ago, stopped at the ancient Tawang monastery after his escape and is scheduled to give a series of religious discourses there from Sunday. India, which considers the Dalai Lama “an honoured guest” and a “spiritual leader”, permits the Nobel laureate monk to visit and preach everywhere in the country, including Arunachal Pradesh, which it considers an “integral part” of India. The northeastern state held democratic elections to the state legislature last month, with an overwhelming majority (72 per cent) turning out to vote for a provincial government within the Indian state. The Congress party, which leads the UPA government in New Delhi, won the elections and formed the state government, where the Dalai Lama will be an “honoured State guest.” India and China have an unresolved decades-old boundary dispute, but the depth of Indian protests about Chinese interference in its internal affairs has caused Beijing to step back, government sources said. In deference to Chinese concerns, however, India has held back permits for foreign journalists wishing to travel to Arunachal Pradesh to cover the Dalai Lama’s week-long visit. Though the Ministry of External Affairs denied that foreign journalists had been prevented from going, it said the permits were being “processed”. Foreign journalists require a special permit to visit the northeastern state. Beijing has also taken note of Indian concerns on reports about it building a dam on the river Brahmaputra saying it would not damage Indian interests. “China is a responsible country and will not do anything to damage the interests of others,” Foreign Ministry spokesperson Ma Zhaoxu said when asked about China’s plans to build dams on the Brahmaputra, or the Yarlung-Tsangpo, as it is known in Tibet. The river flows 1,625 km in Tibet before it enters India. China has consistently denied reports that it was damming or diverting the course of the river that is a lifeline to millions of people in the northeast and Bangladesh. Experts say run of the river hydropower projects such as the one at Zangmu, where the hydroelectric power project is being built, which do not involve substantial diversion of a river’s waters, will not significantly impact areas in India downstream. “The point where they were making a dam is 1,100 kilometres away from our boundary,” Indian Water Resources minister PK Bansal said. “It’s a small dam and no reservoir as such. They already have such 15 dams there which they are using for local purposes,” Bansal clarified. He said while run of the river projects were China’s right to pursue, India’s concern was there should not be diversion in existing flows. “There is no evidence of any such diversion so far,” Bansal said.