Dharamsala Dec. 15- Prime Minister John Key of New Zealand has said he will meet His Holiness the Dalai Lama during the latter’s visit to the island in December next year.
The 73-year-old Nobel Laureate will be visiting Auckland on December 6 next year to speak at Vector Arena and lead a session on Buddhist teachings, reported New Zealand Herald.
“The Prime Minister will treat the Dalai Lama in the same way as any other significant visitor, and will meet the Dalai Lama should his diary permit,” said a spokesman for Mr Key.
French President Nicolas Sarkozy’s meeting with the exiled Tibetan spiritual leader last week angered Beijing, which scrapped a China-EU summit in France in retaliation.
Beijing described the meeting, held in the Polish city of Gdansk, as unwise, opportunistic and a shortsighted approach to handling the Tibet issue.
China routinely objects to foreign leaders meeting the Dalai Lama, whom Beijing calls a ‘splittist’ trying to separate the motherland, an accusation that the Tibetan leader downrightly denies, and insists that he seeks genuine autonomy for Tibet as enshrined in the Chinese constitution.
Businessman Steven Wong, chairman of the United Chinese Association of New Zealand, warned that ties could suffer if Mr Key decides to meet the Dalai Lama.
“It is not a good move, and Mr Key will find it hard to find any Chinese here who will support his decision to meet the Dalai Lama.”
Mr Wong was part of the Government delegation to Beijing this year led by then Trade Minister Phil Goff to sign New Zealand’s Free Trade Agreement with China.
But Mr. Key’s spokesman insisted the meeting with the Dalai Lama would have “no reflection on the importance of the relationship between New Zealand and China, which is now one of our most important”.
The chairman of the Dalai Lama Visit Trust, Thuten Kesang, said he was delighted at Mr Key’s decision.
“I hope the Chinese won’t over-react and turn the simple meeting between the two leaders into another circus. It would just be embarrassing for everybody.”
His Holiness last visited New Zealand in June 2007. Former New Zealand Prime Minister Helen Clark came under opposition from Tibet supporters for snubbing the Tibetan leader under pressure from China. She ruled out a formal meeting last year with the Tibetan leader in Wellington after spending 10 minutes talking to him in a lounge at Brisbane Airport in Australia.
