China cancels summit with EU over Dalai Lama visit

By Steven Erlanger | INTERNATIONAL HERALD TRIBUNE
November 26, 2008

PARIS: China has postponed an annual summit with the European Union originally scheduled for next Monday, the Europeans said in a statement on Wednesday. The Chinese were evidently angered by a new visit to several European countries by the Tibetan spiritual leader, the Dalai Lama.

"The European Union, which set ambitious aims for the 11th European Union-China summit, takes note and regrets this decision by China," the statement said. According to the Europeans, the Chinese "said their decision was due to the fact that the Dalai Lama will at the same time undertake a new visit in several countries of the union and will meet on this occasion heads of state and government."

One of those leaders is President Nicolas Sarkozy of France, who intends to meet the Dalai Lama in Poland in December at a ceremony honoring Lech Walesa, the anti-Communist leader of Solidarity and later Polish president. France holds the presidency of the European Union until the end of the year, so the Chinese postponement is thought to be aimed at France more than at the other nations of the union.

Two weeks ago, China warned that the planned meeting could hurt relations between France and China, but Sarkozy had already side-stepped a meeting with the Dalai Lama earlier this year in France to avoid offending the Chinese, though he sent his wife, Carla, and his foreign minister, Bernard Kouchner, to represent France.

Relations were strained before the Beijing Olympics when Sarkozy, pressed by public opinion after the latest Chinese crackdown in Tibet, said that his presence as European Union president at the games would depend on progress in talks between Beijing and the Dalai Lama's envoys on the future of Tibet. The progress was considered scant and temporary, but it was sufficient for Sarkozy to attend.

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