By Theophilos Argitis
Bloomberg, Oct. 26: Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper will meet early next week in Ottawa with the Dalai Lama, the exiled spiritual leader of Tibet’s Buddhists.
Harper is scheduled to meet with the Dalai Lama in his Parliament Hill office at 2 p.m. Ottawa time on Oct. 29, a day after the religious figure is scheduled to give a speech in Canada’s capital.
It will be the first-ever meeting between a Canadian prime minister and the Dalai Lama, and comes less than two weeks after George W. Bush sparked a row with China by becoming the first sitting U.S. president to appear with him in public.
Tibet, under Chinese authority since the 1750’s, had varying degrees of autonomy until the Chinese Communist Party arrived in 1950, prompting a failed revolt in 1959, after which the Dalai Lama fled to India. The Dalai Lama, 72, has since called for Tibetan self-rule.
To contact the reporter on this story: Theophilos Argitis in Ottawa at targitis@bloomberg.net .
