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Dalai Lama not meeting Obama in October

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The Dalai Lama arrives to give teaching at Tsuglakhang temple in Mcleod Ganj, India, 15 September 2009. High-level US officials, led by a Senior Advisor to president Barack Obama, had apparently told the Dalai Lama that the president will not meet the him when he visits US in October, when they met the Tibetan leader on Monday.File photo/Tibet Sun/Lobsang Wangyal/India

High-level US officials, led by a Senior Advisor to president Barack Obama, had apparently told the Dalai Lama that the president will not meet him when the Dalai Lama visits US in October.

Senior Adviser Valerie Jarrett, along with Under Secretary of State for Global Affairs, Maria Otero, and Michael Strautmanis, chief of staff to Jarrett, met with the Dalai Lama on Sunday and Monday.

The Dalai Lama is now hoping to meet the president after Obama’s maiden presidential trip to China in November.

A statement released by the office of the Dalai Lama after talks with US officials Monday put an end to the speculation about whether the Tibetan leader would meet Obama during his visit to the US in the coming weeks.

“His Holiness greatly appreciated President Obama’s concern for the situation in Tibet and said he was hopeful that during his presidency the Tibetan people can see progress in the resolution of their problem. His Holiness is looking forward to meeting President Obama after his visit to China.”

Obama has pledged support for the Dalai Lama, but will not meet him during his upcoming visit to Washington, taking his own “Middle Way” approach. A meeting could undermine Obama’s hopes of building stronger ties with China.

Tibetan prime minister-in-exile Samdhong Rinpoche on Tuesday said he understood why Obama was not meeting the Dalai Lama before his Chinese trip. He said it was “common sense”.

However, Rinpoche accused the United States and other Western nations of appeasing China in regard to the Tibetan issue.

“Even the US government is doing some kind of appeasement,” Rinpoche told a group of reporters in Dharamshala.

China opposed the meeting, and, as in the past, branded the Dalai Lama a “splittist” who is seeking independence for Tibet. The Dalai Lama has said he only wants genuine autonomy for Tibetans.

“We oppose Dalai’s engagement in separatist activities in any country under whatever capacity and in whatever name and we oppose other countries’ officials meeting with Dalai in any form,” foreign ministry spokeswoman Jiang Yu told reporters in Beijing on Tuesday.

Chinese media carried articles implying that Obama should cave into Chinese pressure not to have any meeting with the Dalai Lama.

“The meeting with the Dalai Lama would be unwise against the backdrop of the escalating trade spat between China and the US. Obama needs to learn from the (French President Nicolas) Sarkozy meeting,” said Ren Donglai, a professor at the Johns Hopkins University-Nanjing University Centre for Chinese and American Studies.

China cancelled a major summit with the European Union last year after French President Nicolas Sarkozy met the Dalai Lama.

Another Chinese report downplayed the political aspect of a meeting between Obama and the Dalai Lama.

Quoting Shen Dingli, a professor on US studies at the Institute of International Studies of Shanghai’s Fudan University, the report said that Obama’s decision of not meeting the Dalai Lama in October must be made out of economic and other interests that are vital to Americans.

“I don’t think we should feel provoked if Obama chooses to see the Dalai Lama,” Shen said.

“Neither should we see it as a gesture of pleasing China if Obama chooses not to see the Dalai Lama. Obama’s decision is based on the interests of his own country.”

Copyright © 2009 Tibet Sun

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