French President Nicolas Sarkozy arrived in Gdansk yesterday for a gathering of Nobel Peace Prize laureates during which he was to meet the Dalai Lama, a move that has China fuming.
As current holder of the EU’s six-month rotating presidency, the French leader’s decision to engage with the exiled Tibetan spiritual leader has so far seen Beijing retaliate by scrapping a China-EU summit in France earlier this week.
Beijing also warned that multi-billion-dollar trade deals between China and France were in jeopardy should the meeting go ahead.
“We have not noticed any kind of start of a boycott of our products,” a French presidential official said yesterday, emphasizing that France and China needed each other during a period of economic crisis.
Sarkozy was set to become the only European head of state to meet the Dalai Lama while holding the EU’s rotating presidency.
Asked on Friday in the northern Polish city whether he thought the French president might cancel the meeting with him, as has happened twice in the past, the Dalai Lama said: “Wait until tomorrow. I don’t know.”
Commenting on whether EU-China relations and trade could suffer over his planned meeting with Sarkozy, the Dalai Lama said: “China also needs Europe.”
“The original initiative of some pressure, sometimes is not followed by action,” he said.
France is digging in its heels, saying the meeting will go ahead and calling for economic ties to be spared from retribution, especially during the financial crisis.
“We cannot have France’s conduct dictated to, even by our friends,” French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner said.
Poland’s Prime Minister Donald Tusk met with the Dalai Lama yesterday in Gdansk, where, as a past recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize, he had been invited to ceremonies marking 25 years since Poland’s anti-communist Solidarity icon Lech Walesa received the honor.
The former union leader is regarded as a key figure in the peaceful collapse of communism in Poland in 1989. The Dalai Lama, now 73, was awarded a Nobel Peace Prize the same year.
European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso attended yesterday’s ceremonies in Gdansk.
The Dalai Lama, who lives in exile in India, has sought “meaningful autonomy” for Tibet since he fled his homeland following a failed uprising in 1959 against Chinese rule, nine years after Chinese troops invaded the region.
China argues that he is actually seeking full independence, something he on Friday called a “totally baseless” claim.
“When China becomes more democratic, with freedom of speech, with rule of law and particularly with freedom of the press ... once China becomes an open, modern society, then the Tibet issue, I think within a few days, can be solved,” the Dalai Lama said on Friday.
Addressing the European Parliament in Brussels on Thursday, he said China lacked the moral authority to be a true superpower.
The head of France’s Tibetan community, Wangpo Bashi, told radio France-Info yesterday, “The Dalai Lama will raise human rights issues and above all the very urgent situation of Tibet ... where the situation nearly resembles that of martial law,” during the afternoon meeting with Sarkozy.
The meeting is “a very strong signal” for Tibetans, he said.
CALL FOR SUPPORT: President William Lai called on lawmakers across party lines to ensure the livelihood of Taiwanese and that national security is protected President William Lai (賴清德) yesterday called for bipartisan support for Taiwan’s investment in self-defense capabilities at the christening and launch of two coast guard vessels at CSBC Corp, Taiwan’s (台灣國際造船) shipyard in Kaohsiung. The Taipei (台北) is the fourth and final ship of the Chiayi-class offshore patrol vessels, and the Siraya (西拉雅) is the Coast Guard Administration’s (CGA) first-ever ocean patrol vessel, the government said. The Taipei is the fourth and final ship of the Chiayi-class offshore patrol vessels with a displacement of about 4,000 tonnes, Lai said. This ship class was ordered as a result of former president Tsai Ing-wen’s (蔡英文) 2018
UKRAINE, NVIDIA: The US leader said the subject of Russia’s war had come up ‘very strongly,’ while Jenson Huang was hoping that the conversation was good Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) and US President Donald Trump had differing takes following their meeting in Busan, South Korea, yesterday. Xi said that the two sides should complete follow-up work as soon as possible to deliver tangible results that would provide “peace of mind” to China, the US and the rest of the world, while Trump hailed the “great success” of the talks. The two discussed trade, including a deal to reduce tariffs slapped on China for its role in the fentanyl trade, as well as cooperation in ending the war in Ukraine, among other issues, but they did not mention
Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi yesterday lavished US President Donald Trump with praise and vows of a “golden age” of ties on his visit to Tokyo, before inking a deal with Washington aimed at securing critical minerals. Takaichi — Japan’s first female prime minister — pulled out all the stops for Trump in her opening test on the international stage and even announced that she would nominate him for a Nobel Peace Prize, the White House said. Trump has become increasingly focused on the Nobel since his return to power in January and claims to have ended several conflicts around the world,
GLOBAL PROJECT: Underseas cables ‘are the nervous system of democratic connectivity,’ which is under stress, Member of the European Parliament Rihards Kols said The government yesterday launched an initiative to promote global cooperation on improved security of undersea cables, following reported disruptions of such cables near Taiwan and around the world. The Management Initiative on International Undersea Cables aims to “bring together stakeholders, align standards, promote best practices and turn shared concerns into beneficial cooperation,” Minister of Foreign Affairs Lin Chia-lung (林佳龍) said at a seminar in Taipei. The project would be known as “RISK,” an acronym for risk mitigation, information sharing, systemic reform and knowledge building, he said at the seminar, titled “Taiwan-Europe Subsea Cable Security Cooperation Forum.” Taiwan sits at a vital junction on
RSS