DHARAMSHALA, July 16: The speaker of the Dharamshala based Tibetan Parliament-in-Exile Penpa Tsering met with Speaker Maya Graf of the Swiss Parliament in Zurich on Monday.
Speaker Tsering, who is on an official visit to Switzerland, met Speaker Graf “informally” over lunch. He reportedly briefed his Swiss counterpart on the current situation inside Tibet and his recent meetings in Italy and Swiss.
Speaker Graf, a longtime Tibet supporter, had received Tibetan spiritual leader His Holiness the Dalai Lama at the Swiss Parliament earlier this year in April. She also met with Sikyong Dr Lobsang Sangay, the elected head of the Tibetan people, in November 2011 in Bern before being elected to her current post.
Speaker Grad had visited the exile Tibetan headquarters of Dharamshala in 2003 and has been a member of the Tibet Group within the Swiss Parliament for a long time.
As part of his visit, Speaker Tsering interacted with members of the Tibetan community in Switzerland on April 13. During his talk, he called on Tibetans to pay “more attention” on the ongoing developments on the Tibetan issue, while noting that “big changes” were taking place inside Tibet, China, and within the Tibetan exile community.
He also spoke about the official Middle-Way Approach of the exile Tibetan administration, which seeks genuine autonomy for Tibet, and the support for this policy from both international community and Chinese people.
The event was organised by the Tibetan Community in Switzerland and Liechtenstein.
In Italy, Speaker Tsering attended an international conference on Tibet in Turin on July 5. The conference, organised by the Association for Tibet and Human Rights of the Regional Council of Piemonte in collaboration with the Tibetan community in Italy, was attended by André Gattolin, Senator of the French Parliament, Matteo Mecacci and Gianni Vernetti, former presidents of the Italian Parliamentary Intergroup for Tibet, Mariacristina Spinosa, councilor for the City of Turin, Ven. Thubten Wangchen, Tibetan MP from Europe, Kalsang Gyaltsen, Special envoy of the Dalai Lama in Europe, and Bruno Mellano of the Radical Adelaide Aglietta.
