President Obama gives 'strong support' to Dalai Lama during meeting

Times Online - 18 February 2010

President Obama told the Dalai Lama of his “strong support" for preservation of Tibet’s identity today and encouraged talks between the exiled leader and China.

After private White House talks between the pair, spokesman Robert Gibbs said the President had stated support for “the preservation of Tibet’s unique religious, cultural and linguistic identity and the protection of human rights for Tibetans" in China.

“The President commended the Dalai Lama’s ’Middle Way’ approach, his commitment to nonviolence and his pursuit of dialogue with the Chinese government,” Mr Gibbs added.

Speaking to reporters outside the White House, the Dalai Lama declared himself “very happy" and said Mr Obama was “very much supportive.”

The meeting was kept low key in deference to anger in China. Beijing considers the Buddhist monk a separatist, and Mr Obama wanted to avoid overly angering China when its cooperation is needed on a range of global issues.

Beforehand, China had warned that Mr Obama was damaging relations by going ahead with the meeting. “China resolutely opposes the visit by the Dalai Lama to the United States, and resolutely opposes US leaders having contact with the Dalai Lama,” Ma Zhaoxu, the foreign ministry spokesman, said.

Supporters chanted and waved Tibetan and US flags in snowy Lafayette Square across from the White House to welcome the spiritual leader, who has now met every sitting US president since George Bush Snr in 1991.

Dalai Lama Heads to Washington, DC

NTDTV - 16 February 2010

The White House announced last week that President Barack Obama and the Dalai Lama will meet on Thursday.

Dalai Lama left Kangra airport on Tuesday for the national capital New Delhi. He will depart for Washington on Wednesday.

[ read more ]

His Holiness the Dalai Lama Leaves for US Visit

tibet.net - 16 February 2010

Dharamshala: Hundreds of Tibetans and well-wishers, carrying khata (traditional scarves), burning incense and flowers, lined on a long stretch of road in Dharamsala as His Holiness the Dalai Lama left this afternoon for a ten-day visit to the United States.

The visit is due to start from 17 February.

The highlight of His Holiness the Dalai Lama's US visit will be his first meeting with President Barack Obama at the White House on 18 February. Mr Obama said he would have an "engaging and constructive" dialogue with His Holiness.

Mr Tenzin Taklha, Joint Secretary to His Holiness the Dalai Lama told AFP news agency that His Holiness would brief President Obama on the situation in Tibet and on the latest round of talks between his envoys and the Chinese authorities.

Mr Taklha said: "No matter what China says, China cares about international opinion".

“For us, the main issue is the six million people in Tibet and their well-being," Mr Taklha said.

“The president’s meeting with His Holiness is an expression of the international community’s concern and it sends a strong signal to the Chinese that they need to work with us to reach a solution,” AFP quoted Mr Taklha as saying.

His Holiness the Dalai Lama’s Secretary Chhime Chhoekyapa said the White House meeting would also send a comforting signal to those living in Tibet.

“They will feel encouraged that the president of the United States, a global superpower, is meeting with His Holiness. It means the world has not forgotten them,” Mr Chhoekyapa told AFP.

In Washington, His Holiness will also receive the Democracy Service Medal from the National Endowment for Democracy on 19 February.

His Holiness will give a series of public talks on cultivating compassion and world peace in California and Florida.

At the invitation of Whole Child International, His Holiness will give a public address entitled Cultivating Compassion and the Needs of Vulnerable Children at the Gibson Amphitheater at Universal Citywalk, on 21 February.

On 23 February, His Holiness will give a talk on "Global Compassion" at the arena at D. Taft University Center, Nova Southeastern University in Fort Lauderdale (Davie), Florida.

His Holiness will give a public talk on "Compassion as a Pillar of World Peace" at Florida Atlantic University, Boca Raton campus in Palm Beach (Boca Raton), Florida, on 24 February.

On 24 February, His Holiness will lead a discussion with south Florida's FACU Presidents on "The Responsibilities of Ethics in Higher Education In Today's Society" to be held at Broward College in Palm Beach (Boca Raton), Florida.

Dalai Lama says he's happy to meet Obama this week

(AP) – 16 February 2010

DHARMSALA, India — The Dalai Lama says he is happy about meeting with President Barack Obama in Washington later this week.

The Tibetan spiritual leader left for New Delhi on Tuesday from the northern Indian town of Dharmsala where he has lived since fleeing Tibet 50 years ago. He leaves Wednesday for Washington and is scheduled to meet the U.S. president Thursday.

The Dalai Lama declined to take questions from reporters about the meeting.

China has urged the U.S. to cancel the meeting, saying it would damage relations between Beijing and Washington.

China accuses the Dalai Lama of pushing to free Tibet from Chinese rule, which he denies.

US refuses to cancel Obama's Dalai Lama meeting

(AFP) – 11 February 2010

WASHINGTON — The White House Friday rejected China's demand for US President Barack Obama to cancel his meeting next week with Tibet's exiled spiritual leader, the Dalai Lama.

White House spokesman Robert Gibbs was asked to react to China's warning that going ahead with the meeting would severely challenge already strained ties between the two powers.

"I do not know if their specific reaction was to cancel it," Gibbs said. "If that was their specific reaction, the meeting will take planned as place next Thursday."

Obama to meet Dalai Lama at White House on February 18

(AFP) – 11 February 2010

WASHINGTON — US President Barack Obama risked angering China by announcing Thursday a meeting next week with the Dalai Lama, just as he needs Beijing's cooperation to pressure Iran over its nuclear ambitions.

Despite Chinese objections, Obama will meet the exiled Tibetan leader in the Map Room at the White House next Thursday, the president's spokesman Robert Gibbs told reporters.

"The Dalai Lama is an internationally respected religious leader. He's a spokesman for Tibetan rights. The president looks forward to an engaging and constructive meeting," Gibbs said.

Despite political pressure at home, Obama avoided meeting the Dalai Lama when the Buddhist monk was in Washington last year, in an apparent bid to set relations off on a good foot with Beijing early in his presidency.

Obama, however, told Chinese leaders during his trip to Beijing in November that he planned to meet with the Dalai Lama, who is widely respected in the United States but branded a separatist by Beijing.

Next week's meeting comes at a time when relations have already soured over the sale of a 6.4-billion-dollar package of US weapons to Taiwan, which Beijing regards as a Chinese territory to be reunified by force if necessary.

And Obama knows Chinese support is vital if he is to succeed in winning united backing at the UN Security Council for the tough regime of sanctions he wants to impose on Iran for stepping up its suspect nuclear work.

Gibbs, however, sought to play down the discord.

We think we have a mature enough relationship with the Chinese that we can agree on mutual interests, but also have a mature enough relationship that we know the two countries... are not always going to agree on everything."

China is a veto-wielding member of the Security Council and has hesitated to step up pressure on Iran, which insists that its sensitive uranium enrichment work is for peaceful civilian purposes.

US and Chinese relations have also been strained over Internet censorship, with Google threatening to leave the fast-growing market over cyberattacks against the email accounts of rights activists.

Beijing said last week it "resolutely opposes" the planned visit by the Dalai Lama, who fled Tibet into exile in India in 1959, especially any meetings with US leaders.

The Dalai Lama, 74, fled his homeland after a failed uprising against Chinese rule. That came nine years after Chinese troops were sent to take control of the region.

Since the 2008 round of talks, China has maintained a tough crackdown in Tibet launched following a wave of anti-Chinese unrest that erupted in March of that year and which Beijing blamed on the Dalai Lama.

Several people have reportedly been executed for their roles in the violence, and last month China named a military veteran, Padma Choling, as Tibet's new governor.

Obama to meet Dalai Lama on Feb 18: White House

By Matt Spetalnick, Reuters - February 11, 2010

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The White House announced on Thursday that President Barack Obama and the Dalai Lama would meet on February 18, despite China's warning that such talks could hurt already-strained Sino-U.S. relations.

Obama's meeting with the exiled Tibetan spiritual leader is likely to set off a new round of sniping from Beijing, which has seen tensions with Washington rise over issues ranging from trade to currency to planned U.S. arms sales to Taiwan.

"The president looks forward to engaging in a constructive dialogue" with the Dalai Lama, said White House spokesman Robert Gibbs.

Obama told China's leaders during a visit to Beijing in November of his intention to meet the Dalai Lama, and the administration had made clear in recent days that it would shrug off Chinese opposition and go ahead with the talks.

China has become increasingly vocal in opposing meetings between foreign leaders and the Dalai Lama, who Beijing deems a dangerous separatist.

Strains over the Dalai Lama meeting and other issues have raised worries that China might retaliate by obstructing U.S. efforts in other areas, such as imposing tougher sanctions on Iran over its nuclear program.

But Gibbs insisted that Washington and Beijing -- the world's largest and third-biggest economies -- have a mature enough relationship to find common ground on issues of international concern despite disagreements on other matters.

Beijing is already irate over U.S. proposals last week to sell $6.4 billion of weapons to Taiwan, the island that China treats as an illegitimate breakaway province.

The United States switched diplomatic recognition from Taipei to Beijing in 1979 but Washington remains Taiwan's biggest backer and is obliged by the 1979 Taiwan Relations Act to help in the island's defense.

Adding to tensions, Obama vowed last week to address currency problems with Beijing and to "get much tougher" with it on trade to ensure U.S. goods do not face a competitive disadvantage.

(Reporting by Matt Spetalnick; Editing by Doina Chiacu)

Obama, Dalai Lama to meet in February

The Associated Press

WASHINGTON — The White House says President Barack Obama and the Dalai Lama will meet at the White House this month.

Obama spokesman Robert Gibbs confirmed to reporters Thursday that the meeting would be in February but didn’t specify a date. The Dalai Lama’s secretary has said he will be in Washington on Feb 17-18.

Chinese leaders have urged Obama not to meet with the exiled Tibetan religious leader.

The White House says Obama told China’s leaders last year that he would meet with the Dalai Lama, viewed by U.S. leaders as a respected religious and cultural leader. Beijing says the Dalai Lama seeks to destroy China’s sovereignty by pushing independence for Tibet.