Prague, Oct 17 (CTK) – Czech PM Bohuslav Sobotka (Social Democrats, CSSD) will not meet the Tibetan Dalai Lama at the Forum 2000 conference and Deputy PM Pavel Belobradek and Culture Minister Daniel Herman will do so as private persons and not as the government representatives, Sobotka told CTK on Monday.
Belobradek and Herman (both Christian Democrats, KDU-CSL) will meet the Dalai Lama on Tuesday, Belobradek confirmed to CTK.
The Foreign Ministry told CTK that it would not comment on the government members’ private programme.
Slovak President Andrej Kiska met the Dalai Lama on Sunday.
The Chinese Foreign Ministry threatened to take unspecified steps in retaliation and said Kiska’s meeting violated the one-China policy, which Slovakia pledged to respect.
China labels the Dalai Lama, 80, a winner of the Nobel Peace Prize, a separatist.
Sobotka said through the government press section that the Czech government had long respected the territorial integrity of China.
“Belobradek and Herman will meet the Dalai Lama as private persons and not as the government representatives,” he said.
The Foreign Ministry stressed that the Czech Republic “is not at the slightest changing its one-China policy and respect for the sovereignty and territorial integrity of China.”
