Dharamsala, February 21: Despite intense pressure from China the US President Barack Obama has met with Dalai Lama in Washington-DC today.
Obama hosted the Tibetan spiritual leader at a private meeting in the White House Map Room, which is viewed as an attempt to give the visit a lower-profile. Obama traditionally hosts foreign leaders in the Oval Office.
Earlier the Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying said, “The United States’ arrangement for its leader to meet the Dalai would be a gross interference in China’s internal affairs and is a serious violation of the norms of international relations.”
China threatened that the meeting “will seriously damage Sino-U.S. relations” and that Obama’s meeting with the Nobel Laureate is tantamount to providing “anti-China separatist activities in the United States”.
Over half-a-century of China’s occupation of Tibet has resulted in systematic destruction of Tibetan culture, language and its fragile environment. Since 2009, there have been 127 known cases of self-immolation in Tibet. Many self-immolators have called for freedom for Tibetans and the return of the Dalai Lama to Tibet.
In October 2009, Obama refused to meet with the Tibetan leader making Obama the first US president not to welcome the Nobel Laureate to the White House. However, the two men met twice since. This is the third.
The meeting was closed to the news media and according to Bloomberg news, “Obama went directly to an address to a group of Democratic governors and made no remarks about the meeting.”
Before his meeting with Obama, the Dalai Lama has met with Sarah Sewall, who is the newly-appointed U.S. Under Secretary for Civilian Security, Democracy, and Human Rights who will also act as the Special Coordinator for Tibetan issues.
