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Obama is committed to meet Dalai Lama: US

PTI

US President Barack Obama holds 16-month-old Dyllan Schneider during a stop at Smitty’s restaurant in Elyria, Ohio on 22 January 2010. White House spokesman Mike Hammer has told foreign journalists that president Obama is committed to meet the Dalai Lama.File photo/Reuters/Kevin Lamarque/US

Notwithstanding objection from China, the White House has said US president Barack Obama is committed to meet Tibetan spiritual leader, the Dalai Lama, and this has been conveyed to Beijing.

“Most certainly,” White House spokesman Mike Hammer told foreign journalists at the Washington Press Centre here, when asked if Obama would be meeting the Dalai Lama this year.

“The president has made clear to the Chinese government that we intend to meet with the Dalai Lama, it has been his every intention,” Hammer said.

However, he did not give any date of the meeting.

Last year, the White House and the office of the Dalai Lama had said the two leaders would be meeting the Tibetan spiritual leader after the China visit of the US president in mid-November.

The Dalai was in Washington in October. This was for the first time in more than a decade that a US president did not meet the Dalai Lama while he was in Washington.

Hammer said during his trip to China last year, Obama made it clear to the Chinese leadership that the US wants to strengthen the relationship with them.

Hammer said the US-China relationship is multidimensional. “There are many facets to the US-China relationship many areas where we can cooperate but there are going to be areas where we disagree and frankly we will speak to those issues,” he said.

Copyright © 2010 PTI

Published in Daily News and Analysis