Moscow, June 24 – China today said it was against Dalai Lama’s visit to Russia particularly after Moscow’s reluctance to allow him to visit the country.
”The Russian government, in particular the Foreign Ministry, has asked the Dalai Lama, who is in favour of Tibet ceding from China, from travelling to Russia,” Chinese ambassador to Russia Liu Guchang told mediapersons in Elista, the capital of Kalmykia, a Buddist-dominated republic.
”This decision is consistent with the spirit of Chinese-Russian relations of partnership and strategic co-operation,” Interfax news agency quoted Liu as saying.
”When visiting any country, the Dalai Lama is not capable of exclusively engaging in religious activities without any kind of political undertones. As a rule, all of his foreign trips have political goals,” he stressed.
The Dalai Lama’s separatist activities were a destabilising factor in Tibet, he said.
Earlier this month Moscow hinted that it was considering allowing the Dalai Lama to visit Russia.
The Kalmyk province President Kirsan Ilyumzhinov, criticised the Russian government for refusing visa to the Dalai Lama to attend a Buddhist forum there early June.
Referring to the Russian Constitution, which proclaims freedom of religion, Mr Ilyumzhinov said the country’s Buddhists plan to go to the Constitutional Court to contest the visa denial to the Tibetian religious head.
