The Dalai Lama arrived in London on Tuesday as part of a protracted foreign tour, highlighting efforts by European governments to balance China’s hostility toward him against their support for human rights in Tibet. The Dalai Lama arrived from Germany, where only one government minister agreed to meet with him.
Chancellor Angela Merkel, who was on a weeklong tour of Latin America, had received him at her offices last September, prompting a chill in relations with Beijing.
In London, Prime Minister Gordon Brown is embroiled in a contentious debate over the level of warmth he should display toward China at the 2008 Summer Olympics in light of Beijing’s recent crackdown on dissent in Tibet.
According to the Dalai Lama’s official program in Britain during an 11-day visit, he will meet Brown only at a scheduled encounter with the archbishop of Canterbury, Rowan Williams, at what the prime minister’s office has called “an interfaith dialogue with several other religious leaders.”
But, breaking with a tradition established by two former British prime ministers — John Major and Tony Blair — Brown will not receive the Dalai Lama at 10 Downing St., his official residence.
The scheduling inspired complaints from militants and politicians who support Tibetans in their struggle against China and who maintain that the British authorities have downplayed the Dalai Lama’s status to avoid conflict with China, a key trade partner.