President Pavel in India personally congratulates Dalai Lama on his 90th birthday
President Petr Pavel on July 27th paid a personal visit to the Dalai Lama, who is celebrating his 90th birthday. The Chinese embassy has expressed its disapproval of the meeting.
On Sunday 27th, on his journey home after a busy presidential trip to Japan, Petr Pavel stopped off in India, where he met with the Dalai Lama. The spiritual leader of Tibetans and the head of Tibetan Buddhism is turning 90 this month, and he received the Czech president in Leh, the Indian region of Ladakh.
President Pavel was therefore able to congratulate the longest-serving senior representative of Tibetan Buddhism in person, and commented that it was a “great pleasure and honour” to repay a visit to the Dalai Lama, who has been to Czechia eleven times and was a friend to Václav Havel. The president was also welcomed by members of the Central Tibetan Administration and shown around the Thikse Monastery.
The visit is a politically sensitive one. The president expressed his support for the Tibetan political cause, and the Office of the President and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs have subsequently stressed that the visit was undertaken in a private capacity, and that Pavel was accompanied by the Czech ambassador to India, but not by anyone from the Office of the President.
Nonetheless, the Chinese embassy in Czechia has voiced their disapproval of the presidential visit. The People’s Republic of China accuses the Dalai Lama, who has lived in exile from Tibet since 1959, of “anti-Chinese separatist activities”. In a statement sent to ČTK on Sunday, the embassy also called on Czechia to uphold its commitment to the One China principle, which asserts the unity of the Chinese nation.
