When Donald Trump was elected in November, the Dalai Lama said he was keen to meet the incoming U. S. president, but since then Trump has cozied up to China
BEIJING/NEW DELHI – When Donald Trump was elected in November, the Dalai Lama said he was keen to meet the incoming U. S. president, but since then Trump has cozied up to China’s leader Xi Jinping, making it less likely the man Beijing deems a separatist will get an invite to the White House anytime soon.
The United States has long recognized Tibet as part of the People’s Republic of China, and does not back Tibetan independence. But that has not deterred all the recent U. S. presidents before Trump from meeting the exiled Tibetan spiritual leader.
The United States is widely seen as the last major Western power that has still held meetings with the Dalai Lama despite Beijing’s objections that such encounters foment separatism.
In past meetings, the U. S. had consistently voiced support for the protection of human rights of Tibetans in China, and called for formal talks between Beijing and the Dalai Lama and his representatives.
A State Department spokeswoman and a White House official referred Reuters to the Dalai Lama’s office when asked whether the Tibetan spiritual leader and his representatives had asked for a meeting with Trump and whether any such meetings were planned.
The Chinese foreign ministry didn’ t immediately respond to a faxed request asking whether Beijing had asked Trump not to meet the Dalai Lama.
“His Holiness was supposed to go (to the U. S.) in April, but it was postponed, ” Lobsang Sangay, head of the Tibetan government-in-exile, said.
That trip has been delayed until June due to a hectic schedule in the preceding months that had left the Dalai Lama physically exhausted, Sangay said, adding that Washington D. C. wouldn’ t be part of the June itinerary.
The office of the Dalai Lama hasn’ t reached out to Trump to arrange a meeting yet, he said.
The Dalai Lama is taking a more considered approach with regard to any meeting with Trump, said a source with knowledge of the thinking of the winner of the 1989 Nobel Peace Prize.
