I will be ‘honoured' to meet Dalai Lama:Polish PM

Saturday, November 29, 2008
Phayul
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Dharamsala Nov.29 - Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk said he would be "honoured" to meet His Holiness the Dalai Lama during the latter's visit to Poland next weekend.


File Photo: Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk

"If the opportunity presents itself, I would be most honoured to meet the Dalai Lama," Tusk told reporters. "The situation in Tibet constitutes, from a European point of view, a major obstacle to normal relations with China," he added.

His Holiness, along with several other past Nobel Prize winners, will attend a ceremony in northern Gdansk to mark 25 years since Solidarity icon and former Polish President Lech Walesa won the Nobel peace prize.

French President Nicolas Sarkozy is scheduled to meet His Holiness at this ceremony on December 6. China earlier called off an EU-China Summit planned for Dec 1 in Lyon, France, which holds the rotating EU presidency. China accused France of "depriving the EU-China summit the required good atmosphere and made it impossible for it to obtain the anticipated result”.

Walesa, who founded Poland's anti-communist Solidarity movement and in whose honor the ceremony at Gdansk is organized, said Friday, "I warn China: do not act this way because you are headed for confrontation with the entire world."

"The world will not agree to your choosing someone his friends or guests. I, Lech Walesa, do not agree to your choosing my friends or invitations."

Meanwhile, analysts in China warn that Sarkozy’s meeting with Dalai Lama may worsen relations between China and France , and even threaten bilateral business ties. “The French side has ‘underestimated’ China 's resolution to protect its sovereignty,” Feng Zhongping, European studies director at the China Institute of Contemporary International Relations, was quoted by China Daily as saying.

The French ambassador to China , Herve Ladsous, said on Friday at a press conference, "President Sarkozy will meet the Dalai Lama as a religious leader, not as a political leader".

His Holiness is also due to visit the Czech Republic and Belgium , where he is scheduled to address the European Parliament in Brussels on Thursday.

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