Hillary Clinton to meet Dalai Lama: State Dept

Thursday, February 18, 2010

AFP
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File Photo: US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton to meet Tibetan Spiritual leader the Dalai Lama

Washington-- US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton will meet with the Dalai Lama, separate from the exiled Tibetan leader's visit to the White House that has angered China, the State Department says.

Clinton will meet with the Dalai Lama at the State Department on Thursday, the same day that the 74-year-old monk goes to the White House to see President Barack Obama, department spokesman Mark Toner said on Wednesday.

"She has met with the Dalai Lama before and looks forward to the opportunity to do so again," Toner told reporters.

"The Dalai Lama is a Nobel Peace Prize laureate, internationally revered religious and cultural leader and the secretary will meet him in this capacity as recent secretaries of state have done," he said.

The White House has refused Beijing's demands to call off Obama's meeting with the Dalai Lama, who fled his Chinese-ruled homeland for exile in India in 1959.

Obama says his meeting with the Dalai Lama is private and will see him in the White House Map Room, not the center of presidential power of the Oval Office.

A State Department official said that arrangements were still being made for Clinton's meeting with the Dalai Lama and it was possible it would also be held privately.