Tibetan spiritual leader the Dalai Lama folds his hands while speaking at an event entitled: "Happiness, Free Enterprise, and Human Flourishing" Thursday, Feb. 20, 2014, at the American Enterprise Institute in Washington. (AP Photo/Charles Dharapak)
President Barack Obama will meet with the Dalai Lama on Friday as part of the exiled Tibetan spiritual leader’s three-week tour of the United States. The meeting will occur 10:00 a.m. Friday in the White House’s map room.
“The President will meet the Dalai Lama in his capacity as an internationally respected religious and cultural leader,” National Security Council spokeswoman Caitlin Hayden said Thursday. “Presidents of both parties over the past three decades have met with the Dalai Lama in the White House.”
The Dalai Lama was the head of state of Tibet until China invaded the central Asian country in 1950. He has been living exile in 1959.
When Obama met with the Dalai Lama in 2011, the Chinese government issued an angry condemnation.