International Business Times
Ian Silvera
September 4, 2015
Spiritual leader will meet the All Party Parliamentary Group for Tibet, IBTimes UK has learned (Reuters)
Buddhist spiritual leader the Dalai Lama will address a group of MPs when he returns to the UK in September, but the exiled Tibetan has no plans to meet with David Cameron or any ministers, IBTimes UK has learned. A spokesman for His Holiness explained that he has not approached the British government for a one-on-one meeting.
“We never request for a meeting with a prime minister, president or any other minister. His Holiness [meets] on the basis of an invitation from an organisation and individuals. It is the same for this meeting – we did not request any meeting with the prime minister, deputy prime minister or any other minister,” said Wangdue Tsering, from the Office of Tibet London.
But the Dalai Lama will address the All Party Parliamentary Group for Tibet on 22 September. The organisation is chaired by Labour’s Fabian Hamilton, who has accused the Chinese government of “reprehensible” human rights abuses against the Tibetan people.
“Singing a song can lead to a jail sentence. People who were legitimately protesting online about abuses in the fur trade earlier this year have also ended up in jail. It is an outrage that people suffer persecution and torture in prison and are then released before they die so they are not deemed to have died from their injuries in jail,” the Leeds North East MP warned in 2014.
Cameron and Nick Clegg, the former deputy prime minister, did meet the Dalai Lama in 2012, but the get-together enraged Beijing. A spokesman for the Chinese foreign ministry claimed at the time that the Communist government was “hurt” by the meeting.
“We call on the British side to earnestly respond to China’s solemn demand, stop conniving at and supporting separatist attempts to achieve Tibetan independence, take practical measures to eliminate the terrible impact and take actions to preserve Chinese-British relations,” the Associated Press reported China’s minister for foreign affairs, Hong Lei, as saying.
After the controversial meeting, the coalition government attempted to strengthen their co-operation with China. Boris Johnson and Cameron have led trade delegations to country and foreign secretary Philip Hammond recently visited China for security talks with his Beijing counterparts.
Back in Britain, the Dalai Lama also plans to hold a public talk at the 02 in London entitled “Compassion – The Foundation of Well-being” on 19 September and he will give another address at the London Coliseum on 20 September before meeting the group of MPs on 22 September and travelling to the United States in October.
