Obama to meet Dalai Lama

BEIJING/WASHINGTON, Wednesday

US President Barack Obama still plans to meet the Dalai Lama, the White House said today, despite China’s warning that such a meeting would hurt ties already strained by US weapons sales to Taiwan.

The White House shrugged off Beijing’s earlier warnings about the meeting, which may happen as early as this month.

“The president told China’s leaders during his trip last year that he would meet with the Dalai Lama and he intends to do so,” White House spokesman Bill Burton told reporters.

“We expect that our relationship with China is mature enough where we can work on areas of mutual concern such as climate, the global economy and non-proliferation and discuss frankly and candidly those areas where we disagree.”

The United States says it accepts that Tibet is a part of China and wants Beijing to open up dialogue with the Dalai Lama about the future of the region.

China’s tough stance reflects deepening tension between the world’s biggest and third-biggest economies, with Beijing noting that President Hu Jintao himself urged Mr Obama not to meet the exiled Tibetan leader.

Ma Zhaoxu, a Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman, said his government “resolutely opposes the leader of the United States having contact with the Dalai under any pretext or in any form”. During Mr Hu’s summit with President Obama in Beijing last November, the Chinese leader “explained China’s stern position of resolutely opposing any government leaders and officials meeting the Dalai”, said Mr Ma. (Reuters)