US President Barack Obama on Friday met Tibetan spiritual leader Dalai lama for the third time at the White House, brushing aside China’s warning that unjustified interference in its domestic affairs will cause “great damage” to bilateral ties.
The meeting took place in the Map Room of the White House and not in his Oval Office, where the President usually holds talks with visiting dignitaries. The meeting was closed to the press and the Dalai lama left the White House without interacting with journalists.
The White House said Obama's meeting with the Dalai lama was in his capacity as an international religious and cultural leader and in the tradition of previous meetings with him.
The White House' announcement of their meeting yesterday drew a sharp reaction from China, which has long opposed foreign dignitaries meeting the 78-year-old Dalai lama who fled to India in 1959.
"The United States supports the Dalai lama's 'Middle Way' approach of neither assimilation nor independence for Tibetans in China," said Caitlyn Hayden, spokesperson of the US National Security Council.
The US recognises Tibet to be a part of China, Hayden said. "We do not support Tibetan independence," she said, stressing that the US strongly supports human rights and religious freedom in China. "We are concerned about continuing tensions and the deteriorating human rights situation in Tibetan areas of China. We will continue to urge the Chinese government to resume dialogue with the Dalai lama or his representatives, without preconditions, as a means to reduce tensions."
Obama and the Dalai lama have met twice before in 2010 and 2011, drawing similar protests from China. Hours before the meeting, China demanded its immediate cancellation, warning that the unjustified interference in its domestic affairs will cause "great damage" to bilateral ties. "We urge the United States to take China's concerns seriously and not to facilitate or offer occasion for the Dalai lama to conduct anti-China secessionist moves," Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying said in a statement.