vIndianz.com (19 Feb, 2010) — Washington: Ignoring strong Chinese objections, US President Barack Obama on Thursday met exiled Tibetan spiritual leader Dalai Lama who is set to seek his help in resolving the vexed Tibet issue.
The two Nobel Peace Prize laureates met away from the cameras in the White House Map Room in what is being billed as a low-key meeting which the US administration calls private but which an angry China has warned could worsen relations between the Pacific powers.
The Map Room in the mansion is the place where presidents stage private meeting and the parleys with the Dalai Lama are not taking place at the more stately Oval Office where Obama frequently meets with world leaders.
Dalai Lama has now met every sitting US president since George H.W. Bush in 1991, but none of them received him in the Oval Office. White House planned to release an official picture later.
Terming it as an important meeting, the Dalai Lama’s Special Envoy Lodi Gyari, said the
74-year-old Buddhist monk will speak about Tibet, and the two are also likely to discuss global concerns.
“His Holiness will be asking the President to help find a solution in resolving the Tibet issue that would be mutually beneficial to the Tibetan and Chinese people,” Gyari said in a statement issued soon after the arrival of the Dalai Lama in Washington on Wednesday.
The Dalai Lama also held a separate closed-door meeting with Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.
The visit comes despite stiff opposition from China, which urged the Obama Administration to cancel the meeting warning it would further damage Sino-US ties.
Analysts said the meeting will be muted because a public Dalai Lama-Obama appearance would enrage China, which believes that official foreign contact with the monk infringes on its sovereignty over Tibet.
China has repeatedly warned that Obama was damaging relations.
“China resolutely opposes the visit by the Dalai Lama to the United States, and resolutely
opposes US leaders having contact with the Dalai Lama,” according to foreign ministry spokesman Ma Zhaoxu.
Beijing had warned the US that the Dalai Lama-Obama could further strain US-Sino relations amid tension over American arms sales to Taiwan and claims of Chinese cyber-spying. Obama had failed to meet the Tibetan spiritual leader last year to keep Beijing in good humour ahead of his first state visit to China in November.
Across the White House, supporters chanted and waved Tibetan and US flags in snowy Lafayette Square to welcome the Tibetan spiritual leader who has lived in exile in India since 1959 when he fled his homeland.
Meanwhile, a new national CNN/Opinion Research Corporation poll released Thursday said nearly three-quarters of all Americans think that Tibet should be an independent country. But the survey also indicates that most Americans think it is more important to maintain good relations with China than to take a stand on Tibet.
Further Reading- Exiled Tibetans’ grand congregation begins – Sify
- American ambassador arrives in Dharamsala to meet Dalai Lama – Hindustan Times
- Our ties with India won’t be hit: Dalai Lama – The Hindu
- Dalai Lama turns down plea to continue as Tibetan political head – NDTV.com
- Tibetans form committee to find Dalai Lama’s replacement – Times of India
- India, China PMs to meet as the tension grows
- Reconciling China and Tibet – Wall Street Journal
- Great changes taken place in Tibet – Xinhua
- China has no communist ideology; India deserves UNSC seat: Lama – Economic Times
- Tibetan General Meeting to be held in Dharamshala from May 21 – IBNLive.com
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