US: Dalai meet not postponed

Washington, Oct. 7: Terming as “inaccurate” reports that US President Barack Obama has postponed his talks with the Dalai Lama, the White House has said a meeting was never on the cards during the Tibetan leader’s current trip here and it will take place later in 2009 after the Sino-US summit in November.
It also said that a strong US-China relationship will help the cause of the Tibetan people. “Tibetan people know that our strong relationship with China helps them,” White House press secretary Robert Gibbs told reporters, as the mainstream US media tried to corner him on the issue of Mr Obama postponing his meeting with the Dalai.
It has been a tradition since 1991 that the Tibetan spiritual leader meets the US President, whenever he visits Washington. This is for the first time since then that the US President is not meeting the Dalai during his Washington trip.
The US media has interpreted this as a change in the American policy towards Tibet and accused the Obama administration of trying to appease the Chinese government.
Both the Dalai Lama’s special envoy and White House have refuted such reports and asserted that a meeting during the current trip of the Tibetan spiritual leader was never on the cards and it was decided long ago that the two leaders would meet after Mr Obama’s visit to China in November.
Mr Gibbs said the statement that the Dalai Lama and his supporters put out was fully in support of a meeting that will take place later in the year.