Dharamsala, August 23 – The Dalai Lama, Tibet’s spiritual leader, is expected to meet US President George W Bush and Secretary of State Colin Powell during a visit to the United States next month, a Tibetan official said on Saturday.
Although Press Secretary Tenzin Taklha said the meetings would likely be informal, they would provoke protests from China, which regards the Dalai Lama as a separatist and a troublemaker. The Dalai Lama had earlier met Bush in Washington in May 2001. He has also met two former presidents, Bill Clinton and George Bush, when they were in office.
The Dalai Lama will arrive in San Francisco on September 4 for a three-week visit to the United States. He will be in Washington from September 8-11, Taklha said.
The Tibetan leader will also deliver a public address at New York’s Central Park on September 21. He drew a crowd of at least 40,000 the last time he spoke at Central Park in 1999.
He will also visit Bloomington, Indiana and Boston during his visit, which concludes September 24.
The Dalai Lama fled Tibet in 1959 during a failed uprising against Chinese communist rule. He runs a Tibetan government-in-exile from Dharamsala.
