Terming as “inaccurate” reports that Barack Obama has postponed his talks with the Dalai Lama, the White House has said the US President holds the Tibetan leader in great esteem and insisted that a meeting was never on the cards during the Nobel laureate’s current trip here, says Tibetan web portal Phayul.com.

It also said that a strong Sino-US relationship will help the cause of the Tibetan people.

“Tibetan people know that our strong relationship with China helps them,” White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs told reporters, as the mainstream US media tried to corner him on the issue of Obama postponing his meeting with the Dalai.

It has been a tradition since 1991 that the Tibetan spiritual leader meets the US President, whenever he visits Washington. This is for the first time since then that the US President is not meeting the Dalai during his Washington trip.

The US media has interpreted this as a change in the American policy towards Tibet and accused the Obama Administration of trying to appease the Chinese Government.

China Daily, in fact, confirms that the Chinese government will flex its diplomatic muscles towards any country that accepts the Tibetan spiritual leader in an official visit.

“We firmly oppose any country having official contact with him,” said Foreign Ministry spokesman Ma Zhaoxu yesterday.

A Chinese analyst yesterday played down any significance of Obama’s decision, saying it was only “postponement”, not “refusal”, to meet the Dalai Lama.

It would have a “very negative” effect on Obama’s China visit scheduled for November if he met the Dalai Lama now, said Jin Canrong, a professor of international relations at the Renmin University of China.

However, Jin said such a meeting would not affect the general development of Sino-US ties.

“China will certainly complain (when Obama and the Dalai Lama meet), but the two countries will continue with their cooperation in other areas,” he said.