Dharamshala November 2 – An expected visit to France by His Holiness the Dalai Lama next month, during which the French government said he would meet President Nicolas Sarkozy, will not take place, French weekly Journal du Dimanche said on Saturday.
“As of today, there is no visit to France planned for December and I am not planning to come during that period either,” Mathieu Ricard, the Dalai Lama’s French interpreter, told the newspaper in an article released ahead of publication.
The 73 year old Tibetan leader last visited France in August this year but did not meet Sarkozy during his two-week stay, which coincided with the Olympic Games in Beijing.
The government said the two would meet on Dec. 10 at a meeting of Nobel Peace Prize winners to celebrate the 60th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, adopted in Paris in 1948.
