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.
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 here
yesterday.
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.
PTI
First Published: Thursday, February 18, 2010, 23:46