Berlin, May 19 – Ignoring criticism from China and from members of her own party, a sole German cabinet minister met with the Dalai Lama on the final day of his visit to Germany on Monday. Development Aid Minister Heidemarie Wieczorek-Zeul described the 45-minute meeting at Berlin’s plush Hotel Adlon as “very good” and “fruitful.”
She said the talks touched on human rights, the struggle to eradicate poverty and the recently launched dialogue between China and representatives of the Dalai Lama.
It was the only meeting between a member of Chancellor Angela Merkel’s coalition government during the Tibetan spiritual leader’s five-day stay in Germany.
Aides to the minister rejected suggestions that she met the Dalai Lama, 72, in a private capacity, saying it was part of her world economic-development job to meet important international figures.
Many in her Social Democratic Party have criticized her, saying it was more important to cultivate harmony with Beijing.
The ranking Social Democrat in Merkel’s government, Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier, was reportedly unhappy at the meeting, which triggered a diplomatic protest from Beijing.
Last year German diplomats scrambled to restore amicable relations with Beijing after Merkel met the Dalai Lama. The chancellor was in Latin America during the Tibetan leader’s current tour.
Senior Social Democrats insisted neither Steinmeier nor party leader Kurt Beck were informed in advance of Wieczorek-Zeul’s plans.
Government spokesman Thomas Steg said he did not expect the meeting to have an adverse affect on the dialogue between the Tibetans and Chinese, which Merkel’s government supported.
The talks were launched in the Chinese city of Shenzen after the eruption of freedom demonstrations in Tibet in March.
A spokesman for Steinmeier said the political squabble over the visit had not led to a rift in Merkel’s government.
“We are all committed to ensuring that there is cultural autonomy in Tibet and that the population there enjoy a reasonable standard of living,” spokesman Martin Jaeger said.
On the last day of his visit to Germany, the Dalai Lama was also set to meet with the chairman of the parliamentary committee on foreign affairs, Ruprecht Polenz, who is a Christian Democrat like Merkel, and with leaders of the opposition Greens.
Later he was to address a rally near the landmark Brandenburg Gate. Anti-Dalai Lama groups said they would demonstrate against him.
On Sunday, the Dalai Lama had called for greater tolerance between the world’s major religions at a gathering of 7,000 people in the southern German city of Nuremberg.
Chinese communist forces invaded Tibet in 1950. Since the Tibetan resistance movement collapsed in 1959, the Dalai Lama has lived in India, where the Tibetan government-in-exile is based.
