By Madeline Chambers
LONDON – Britain’s Tony Blair will not meet the Dalai Lama this week when the exiled Tibetan spiritual leader visits London — but the prime minister said he had not bowed to pressure from China.
Just three weeks after Blair met China’s Prime Minister Wen Jiabao in London and about $1 billion of Chinese contracts were signed with British companies, the Dalai Lama will have to make do with Foreign Secretary Jack Straw.
“I have met the Dalai Lama on past occasions and will be very happy to meet him again on subsequent occasions,” Blair told parliament when pressed why he was not seeing him this time.
Asked if the reason was because he had been pressured by China, Blair said: “No, it isn’t.”
China, which imposed communist rule on Tibet in 1950 and claims it as part of its territory, accuses the religious leader of separatist activities.
The week-long visit starting Thursday follows media reports that London’s Chinese Embassy had raised objections to a Blair-Dalai Lama meeting.
CAMPAIGNERS PRESS MINISTER
Blair, who last met the Dalai Lama in May 1999, said Tibet was an ongoing matter of concern.
“This is a matter we raise constantly with the Chinese, most recently upon the visit of Premier Wen when we had a significant and long discussion on Tibet,” he said.
The Foreign Office said Straw’s meeting Thursday would not mark a change of Britain’s policy toward Tibet which is to encourage China to find a lasting and non-violent solution for Tibet acceptable to its people.
Campaigners expressed disappointment Blair would not meet the Dalai Lama and pressed Straw to take a strong stance.
“We have written to Jack Straw asking him not just to engage in diplomatic niceties with the Dalai Lama but also to offer real political support,” Alison Reynolds, director of the Free Tibet campaign in London, told Reuters.
A Foreign Office spokeswoman said Straw would discuss the situation in Tibet and human rights concerns.
Chinese Embassy officials in London were unavailable for comment.
The Dalai Lama has run a government-in-exile in India since fleeing after a failed uprising in 1959.
The Dalai Lama, who met Canadian Prime Minister Paul Martin last month, will also visit Prince Charles and the leader of the opposition Conservative Party Michael Howard before traveling to Scotland.
