Dalai Lama and Obama Meet to Talk About Tibet

WASHINGTON — President Obama met privately with the Dalai Lama, the exiled spiritual leader of Tibet, at the White House on Saturday, despite a warning from Beijing that the meeting would risk damaging relations between China and the United States.

Reflecting the diplomatic delicacy of the visit, the 44-minute meeting with the Dalai Lama — Mr. Obama’s second as president — was closed to the news media. China considers Tibet its territory and the Dalai Lama a separatist, although he favors self-rule rather than independence.

The Dalai Lama underscored that point in his conversation with Mr. Obama, according to a White House summary of the meeting. The White House statement also reflected the delicate balance Mr. Obama sought to strike, saying he expressed “strong support” for direct talks and a resolution between China and Tibet that protects both Tibetans’ rights and China’s claim to the territory. But Mr. Obama also “stressed the importance he attaches to building a U.S.-China cooperative partnership.”

“The president reiterated his strong support for the preservation of the unique religious, cultural and linguistic traditions of Tibet and the Tibetan people throughout the world,” the statement said. “He underscored the importance of the protection of human rights of Tibetans in China.”

The meeting came at a particularly delicate time as China, the largest creditor to the United States, has expressed concern about the risk of a default on American bonds if Mr. Obama and Republicans cannot break their impasse over raising the nation’s legal debt limit.

Beijing on Saturday reiterated its call for Mr. Obama to cancel the meeting, according to China’s official news agency, Xinhua. “The issue regarding Tibet concerns China’s sovereignty and territorial integrity, and we firmly oppose any foreign official to meet with the Dalai Lama in any form,” the Chinese Foreign Ministry said.

Mr. Obama declined to meet with the Dalai Lama in his first year as president, in October 2009, drawing international criticism as seeming to put economic interests with China ahead of human rights. The administration said the two would meet after Mr. Obama’s first trip a month later to China, where the United States was eager for Chinese cooperation in preventing nuclear proliferation in North Korea and Iran. Their introduction came the following February.

The Dalai Lama, a recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize, has lived in exile in India since 1959, when China repressed a Tibetan uprising. He was in Washington for a Buddhist celebration.