Dharamsala, Apr 25 (IANS): Tibetan spiritual leader, the Dalai Lama, on Monday congratulated Emmanuel Macron on being re-elected as the President of France for a second five-year term.

"It has been the Tibetan people's good fortune to have received the friendship and encouragement of the people of France and their respective leaders in our endeavour to protect and preserve our ancient Buddhist culture, a culture of peace, non-violence (ahimsa) and compassion (karuna) that has the potential to benefit the whole of humanity," the Dalai Lama said.

"On behalf of all my fellow Tibetans, may I take this opportunity to express my gratitude once again. I wish you every success in meeting the challenges that lie ahead in fulfilling the hopes and aspirations of the French people and in contributing to a more peaceful and harmonious world," he added.

In the run-off presidential election held on Sunday, Macron secured 18,779,641 votes (58.54 per cent) against his far-right rival Marine Le Pen, who got 13,297,760 votes (41.46 per cent)

This was the first time since Jacques Chirac of the right-of-centre Republican party in 2002, that a sitting president has been granted dual terms by French voters, whose preferences have been quite volatile in recent years.