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Kouchner to meet Dalai Lama in government U-turn

Article published on the 2008-08-15 Latest update 2008-08-15 13:41 TU

The Dalai Lama at the Senate with UMP members Louis de Broissia (L) and Lionel Luca (R).(Photo: Reuters)

The Dalai Lama at the Senate with UMP members Louis de Broissia (L) and Lionel Luca (R).
(Photo: Reuters)

French Foreign Affairs Minister Bernard Kouchner will meet the Dalai Lama on Wednesday 20 August, according to the Tibetan Buddhist leader's interpreter, during his 11-day visit to France. The Foreign Affairs Ministry has not confirmed the claim. The opposition Socialist Party called the move a "belated improvisation".

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Interpreter Matthieu Ricard told the news-media that Kouchner phoned on Wednesday evening to fix a rendezvous in the western French town of Nantes next Wednesday, 20 August.

The Dalai Lama had addressed 4,000 people at a Buddhist centre south of Paris, where he had expressed the fear that "Tibetan heritage, culture and civilisation are dying".

Earlier, the Socialist candidate in the last presidential election, Ségolène Royal, announced that she will meet the Dalai Lama in Nantes on Saturday.

Socialist Party MP Jean-Louis Bianco derided Kouchner's invitation as "a belated improvisation" in response to the Royal meeting and the controversy stirred up by the Buddhist leader's behind-closed-doors meeting at the Senate.

Several Socialist politicians have criticised President Nicolas Sarkozy's failure to meet the Dalai Lama, claiming that he is bowing to pressure from China.