December 3, 2008

Dealing firmly with China

The Dalai Lama is in Europe. On Monday, during his visit to Prague—where he met his long-time friend Vaclav Havel, the former Czech President, as well as Prime Minister Mirek Topolanek—, he called on the world to stand firm when dealing with China. “I’m always telling my friends that a good, a close relationship with a huge country like China is very essential, and not only for the economy,” he said. “But in the meantime, there are principles, like freedom of expression, human rights, democracy... for which you have to stand firm. Genuine friendship leaves a space to be firm, and at the end the other does appreciate (that),” he added.

His Holiness will address the European Parliament in Brussels on December 4 and will have a meeting with French President Sarkozy on December 6 in Gdansk, Poland.

Well, what would be an appropriate outcome of this European tour? What about if “the European Union designate as soon as possible a high profile European Emissary to help resolve the issue of Tibet and put an end to tensions between China and Europe around Tibetan issues?” That is what the International Campaign for Tibet (ICT) asks the European Union to do.

It would be a miracle if that were to happen, but, well, who knows?