The Dalai Lama said on Wednesday that he is set to visit new President-elect Donald Trump and that he has no worries with the billionaire leading the United States.
During the end of his four-day visit to Mongolia, the exiled Tibetan leader said he is excited to meet Trump, CNN reported. The Dalai Lama said he has no problems with Trump's harsh rhetoric during the campaign period saying that he believes it's normal for candidates to express more freely when campaigning, but will soon deal with reality after winning.
He told the press in Ulaanbaatar that he thinks that the U.S. is the leading country in the "free world." These are some of Dalai Lama's most extensive statements about Trump, who aims to put USA's concerns first with less regard in the country's traditional global democracy responsibilities, CBS News reported.
The 1989 Nobel Peace Prize winner will meet with the real estate tycoon after the January 20 inauguration. These kinds of meetings are the main reason why China is against him, accusing him of trying to split Tibet from China.
Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Geng Suang said that the 81-year-old spiritual leader has been meeting foreign leaders as part of his anti-China separatists acts. Suang hopes that international community will handle Tibet-related concerns appropriately.
The Dalai Lama said he had not been advocating for the independence of Tibet from China publicly, but he calls for stronger Tibetan political participation and for China to respect their stronger Buddhist traditions.
President Obama is very open to the Dalai Lama meeting him 4 times during his term. Just this September, the spiritual leader impersonated Trump by mimicking the President-elect's mannerism an hair style. This quickly became viral online.
Meanwhile Tibetan exile community spokeswoman, Tenzin Dhardon Sharling said she didn't know about Dalai Lama's plans to meet with Trump. She said that their self-declared government, located in Dharamsala, India, has had good relations with U.S. presidents and hopes that the Trump administration will continue that relationship.
She said that the Dalai Lama believes in how the U.S. is a champion of democracy and also hopes for the new administration to continue their support for them.
