NEW DELHI: The Tibetan spiritual leader, the Dalai Lama, faces increasingisolation in his home in exile as India tones down an assertive standtoward its powerful neighbour and rival, China, in the hope of calming tiesstrained by a border stand-off.

The Asian giants were locked in a 73-day military face off in a remote,high-altitude stretch of their disputed border last year, with, at onepoint, soldiers from the two sides throwing punches and stones at eachother.

The confrontation between the nuclear-armed powers in the Himalayasunderscored Indian alarm at China’s expanding security and economic linksin South Asia.

China’s ambitious Belt and Road initiative of transport and energy linksbypasses India, but involves India’s neighbours Sri Lanka, Nepal and theMaldives.

Now Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s nationalist government, is reversingcourse, apparently after realising its hard line on China was not working,and the Dalai Lama is facing the cold shoulder.

“We are moving forward with this relationship, the idea is to put theevents of 2017 behind us,” an Indian government source involved in Chinapolicy said.

The idea is to “be sensitive” to each other’s core concerns and not letdifferences turn into disputes, the source said.

The Dalai Lama has lived mostly in the north Indian town of Dharamsalasince 1959, when he fled a Chinese crackdown on an uprising in his homeland.

In Dharamsala, his supporters run a small government in exile and campaignfor autonomy for Tibet by peaceful means. India has allowed him to pursuehis religious activities in the country and to travel abroad.

Early this month, India issued an unprecedented ban on Tibetans holding arally with the Dalai Lama in New Delhi to mark the 60th anniversary of thestart of the failed uprising against Chinese rule. – Agencies