Much of the media coverage of the Dalai Lama's recent meeting with President Obama emphasised alleged attempts by the White House to downplay the profile of the meeting. By receiving the Dalai Lama in the Map Room of the White House, it was argued, rather than in the Oval Office where foreign leaders are customarily received, President Obama had attempted to smooth ruffled Chinese feathers.

But rather than worrying about which sofas were sat on in which room, a better understanding of the President's intentions, and the message he was attempting to send to China, can be gauged from a careful analysis of what was actually said by the White House before and after the meeting.

Before the meeting the White House spokesperson, Robert Gibbs, said:
"The Dalai Lama is an internationally respected religious leader and spokesman for Tibetan rights, and the President looks forward to an engaging and constructive dialogue."

By describing the Dalai Lama as a "spokesman for Tibetan rights" the White House could not have been clearer in endorsing the Dalai Lama's legitimacy to speak on behalf of the Tibetan people in matters way beyond just religion. The White House was saying that it viewed the Dalai Lama as qualified to speak for the Tibetan people on their most basic political, civil and human rights.

The President himself clearly recognised the Dalai Lama as a legitimate spokesperson for the Tibetan people's political aspirations. The statement (link here to: http://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/statement-press-secretary-pre sidents-meeting-with-his-holiness-xiv-dalai-lama ) released by the White House immediately after the meeting stated that "the President commended the Dalai Lama's "Middle Way" approach". (This was a reference to the Dalai Lama's long-standing position that he is not seeking independence from China, but rather meaningful autonomy for the Tibetan people).

By so specifically singling out the Dalai Lama's "Middle Way" approach as a means for unlocking the political impasse in Tibet, the President unmistakeably demonstrated his view that the Dalai Lama is the legitimate leader of the Tibetan people who have placed their trust in him to work to find a solution to their political wishes.

In a move also not widely reported, the President gave another strong signal during the meeting of the US's view of the Dalai Lama's role as the legitimate leader of the Tibetan people. According to reports by AFP and Voice of America Tibetan language service radio, President Obama gave the Dalai Lama a copy of a long-lost letter sent by President Roosevelt in 1942 to the Dalai Lama, just two years after the Dalai Lama had been enthroned. The letter was sent before the Chinese invasion of Tibet in 1950 and was hand delivered to the Dalai Lama in Lhasa by two US military officers.

According to Voice of America, President Roosevelt wrote in his letter to the young Dalai Lama:
"There are in the United States of America many persons, among them myself, who, [are] long and greatly interested in your land and people".

The significance of the letter will not be lost on the Chinese leadership which has long attempted to demonise the Dalai Lama and deny his leadership of the Tibetan people. By choosing to present the letter to the Dalai Lama, President Obama was surely sending a carefully coded message to Beijing: that the United States had established contact with Tibet before China invaded in 1950, and that there existed a long relationship between US Presidents and the Dalai Lama.

If, as was widely reported, Obama had wished to downplay his meeting with the Dalai Lama, one has to ask the following rather pertinent question: why did he use the meeting to remind the world that one of his most illustrious predecessors had sent a letter to the Dalai Lama before China's invasion of Tibet, expressing the US's great interest in the Dalai Lama's "land and people"?