Dharamsala, September 14: Top aides to US President Barack Obama today held talks with the Dalai Lama ahead of the exiled Tibetan spiritual leader”s planned US visit next month. Led by Valerie B Jarret, White House adviser and assistant to the President for inter-governmental affairs and public engagement, Obama”s three senior aides had a two-hour closed-door meeting with the Dalai at his residence at Mcleodganj, about 22 km from here.
The meeting at the Tibetan government-in-exile”s headquarters at Dharamsala in Himachal Pradesh”s Kangra district also comes a few weeks before Obama leaves for China. The Tibetan temporal head”s spokesman at Dharamsala Tenzin Taklha declined to divulge the details of Dalai”s meeting with the US delegation, which is the highest-level official US group to travel to Dharamsala since March 2008, when US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi met the 73-year-old Nobel Laureate here following a wave of unrest in Tibet.
Other members of the US team were Maria Otero, Under Secretary for State for Global Affairs and Special Co-ordinator for Tibetan Affairs designate in the US State Department and Michael Strautmanis, Chief of Staff to the Assistant to the President for inter-governmental relations and public liaison. Considerable significance is being attached to the meeting since the Dalai will be in the US and he hopes to meet Obama before the President leaves for China.
The US team had a meeting with the Tibetan government-in-exile Prime Minister Samdhong Rinpoche yesterday. .
—Agencies