DHAKA: US president Barack Obama on Friday offered ‘strong support’ for Tibetans’ human rights in a meeting with the region’s spiritual leader the Dalai Lama that defied China.

‘The president reiterated his strong support for the preservation of Tibet’s unique religious, cultural, and linguistic traditions and the protection of human rights for Tibetans in the People’s Republic of China,’ a White House statement said, The Straits Times publishes this report on Saturday.

The White House said that Obama supported the Dalai Lama’s ‘Middle Way’ path of peaceful dialogue and encouraged China to resume long-stalled talks with the exiled leader or his representatives.

The statement rejected Beijing’s charges that the Dalai Lama, a Nobel Peace laureate and self-described pacifist, had a separatist agenda and that his meeting was part of a plot to split China.

BDST: 1230 HRS, FEB 22, 2014