Dharamshala, 17th October 2023: Today, Manpreet Singh Anand, NDI’s Asia Regional Director; and Jami Spykerman, NDI’s Tibet Program Director visited the Tibetan Parliament-in-Exile. They greeted Speaker Khenpo Sonam Tenphel and Deputy Speaker Dolma Tsering Teykhang with Tibetan ceremonial scarves (Khata) upon meeting with the Speakers, followed by a very productive meeting at the Standing Committee’s Hall.

During their hour-long meeting, the Speakers updated them on the ongoing and completed projects of the TPiE in partnership with the NDI and on parliament’s plans and priorities.

The Deputy Speaker highlighted how TPiE and NDI’s closely netted partnership has delivered productive and substantial outcomes over the past years with the production of 8th World Parliamentarians’ Convention on Tibet’s report, workshops for new MPs of the 17th TPiE and on enhancing lawmakers’ advocacy and communication skills with very practical and useful insights from experts.

Organizing Local Tibetan Assembly workshops, town hall meetings, youth leadership workshop, outreach to Indian colleges and youngsters, citizen engagement programs, and other collaborative projects were also mentioned by the Deputy Speaker during the meeting.

While, the Speaker extended his gratitude to NDI for their partnership in bringing fruition to numerous TPiE projects beginning with the 17th Tibetan parliament’s constitution with workshop for new MPs, holding of TPiE’s strategic meetings, publication of parliament’s strategic plan, finalizing of information sheet and TPiE brochure, TPiE short introduction videos, and democratic exchange meetings for Tibetan MPs.

The Speaker also added that the Tibetan Parliament-in-Exile is hopeful to collaborate with the NDI on many of its upcoming projects and programs.

NDI’s Asia Regional Director mentioned that NDI works as a partner for the TPiE to ensure that they do their work independently and acknowledges the importance of investing in the resilience of democracy, especially those who are under constant attack. He also mentioned NDI’s aspiration to continue their partnership with TPiE.

Finally, all the visiting delegates were honoured with Tibetan ceremonial scarves and were taken on a tour of the parliament hall.