Reportage – 2005

Exiled Tibetan PM welcomes Chinese Premier to India

DHARAMSHALA, India, 8 April 2005

The exiled Tibetan Prime Minister Samdhong Rinpoche wished a successful trip for the Chinese premier Wen Jia Bao to India.

"I hope the Chinese premier's visit to India turns out to be a success", the exiled Prime Minister said in a statement.

Wen is arriving in India from Sri Lanka on Saturday in the last leg of his visit to four South Asian countries. He is likely to sign nearly 30 agreements to promote political, economic and cultural ties during talks with Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh in Delhi on Monday.

Wen was also expected to raise the issue of Tibet and the role of the exiled Tibetan leader, the Dalai Lama, who lives in exile in India, Chinese officials have said.

The exiled prime minister looks forward to the first visit of a Chinese premier since the so-called fourth generation leadership came to power in China, and believes that peace and stability in Southeast Asia will affect the Tibetan efforts of negotiation with China positively.

On the contrary, Tibetan youths are taking another course. They are reportedly organising protest demonstrations against the Chinese premier during his visit to Delhi and Bangalore.

The exiled PM had appealed to the Tibetans all over the world to refrain from indulging in aggressive demonstrations in a bid to create a conducive atmosphere for China and the exiled government to foster negotiation for the Tibetan problem.

However, he said the planned protests by Tibetan youths in Delhi and Bangalore cannot be stopped by anyone as India is a free country, although he believed that protests will cause embarrassment to their host country and also to the visiting Chinese premier.

He added that everyone has the right to express their grievances but wished the expressions were done in respectful ways.