Melbourne: Australian Prime Minister Julia Gillard will not meet with the visiting Tibetan spiritual leader Dalai Lama to avoid a diplomatic row with China.
“The prime minister will not meet with the Dalai Lama on this visit to Australia,” Gillard’s spokesman said on Monday.
“Australian prime ministers have not met the Dalai Lama on every occasion he has visited Australia. Given the frequency of his travel to Australia, the government believes the current arrangements are appropriate,” he was quoted as saying by the AAP.
However, he said, a member of the government would meet privately with the leader, who recently gave up his political authority over Tibetans, but remains their spiritual leader.
China is opposed to foreign governments or leaders having any interaction with the Dalai Lama, who has been accused by Beijing of trying to split the nation.
The Dalai Lama, who arrived in Melbourne on June 9 for an 11-day tour of Australia to give a series of lectures on Tibetan Buddhism and his life, will visit Canberra on Tuesday.
According to the report, opposition leader Tony Abbott confirmed he would meet with the Dalai Lama.
It said the 1989 Noble laureate will also meet with Greens Party Leader Bob Brown, who was quoted as saying he was looking forward to the visit.
“Too often politics is a spiritually dead zone,” Brown said.
“It needs a good dose of long-sighted compassion and who better than Tibet’s Nobel peace prize winner to provide it,” he said.
Members of Gillard’s own government and pro-Tibetan activists also urged Gillard to meet the Tibetan spiritual leader but to no avail.
“There will be a great feeling of pleasure around Australia if she takes ten minutes off to do just that,” the leader of the Greens Party underlined. (PTI)