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Obama raises Tibetan issue with Chinese FM

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US President Barack Obama (right) meets with Chinese Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi at the White House, Washington DC, US, on 12 March 2009. Obama raised the issue of Tibet and expressed hope that there would be progress in the dialogue between the Chinese government and the Dalai Lama’s representatives.Xinhua/Zhang Yan/US

US President Barack Obama hoped for progress in the talks between Beijing and representatives of the Tibetan spiritual leader, the Dalai Lama, on the future of that country during his talks with Chinese Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi Thursday in Washington, media reports say.

Obama’s raising the Tibetan issue came a day after the US House of Representatives passed a resolution Wednesday calling for a “sustained multilateral effort to bring about a durable and peaceful solution to the Tibet issue”.

China subsequently accused the US Congress Thursday of damaging relations and meddling in its internal affairs by passing a resolution recognising the plight of Tibet’s people and their exiled spiritual leader, the Dalai Lama.

“The President expressed his hope there would be progress in the dialogue between the Chinese government and the Dalai Lama’s representatives,” said the White House in a statement issued after the meeting at the Oval Office in White House.

During the meeting, Obama, despite Chinese discomfort, noted that promotion of human rights was an essential aspect of US global foreign policy, the statement added.

Earlier this week, the United States expressed concern over the human rights situation in Tibet, and said only “a substantive dialogue” with the Dalai Lama’s representative could bring a lasting peace in that region.

China strongly protested the US statement and called for dropping the Tibet resolution in the Congress.

Expressing concern over the issue, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman, Ma Zhaoxu, had said in Beijing: “The Tibet issue is purely China’s domestic issue. The Chinese government and people, as always, oppose any country or anyone to interfere in China’s internal affairs under the pretext of the Tibet issue.”

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