Reportage – 2005

Dalai Lama’s envoys and Chinese officials meet in Switzerland for talks

MCLEOD GANJ, India, 1 July 2005

The two envoys of the Dalai Lama with their assistants have landed in Berne, Switzerland, for the fourth round of talks with Chinese officials for eventual negotiations with the Chinese government to resolve the Tibetan issue.

"Mr. Lodi Gyaltsen Gyari, accompanied by Mr. Kelsang Gyaltsen and three senior assistants, began the first session of the fourth round of their talks with Chinese counterparts at the Embassy of the People's Republic of China in Berne, Switzerland on June 30, 2005. This is in continuation of the process started in September 2002," a press release from the office of the Dalai Lama said on Friday.

The fourth round of talks with the Chinese counterparts concluded this afternoon. The dialogue started on 30 June and went on to the afternoon of 1 July 2005.

Mr. Zhu Weiqun, the Vice-Minister of the United Front, Mr. Sithar and other officials of the department were the Chinese officials and the Dalai Lama's envoys were accompanied by Mr. Sonam Norbu Dagpo, the Secretary of the Department of Information and International Relations, Mr. Tsegyam Ngaba, the Dalai Lama's Representative in Taiwan, and Mr. Bhuchung K. Tsering, a member of the Task Force on Negotiations of the Tibetan government-in-exile.

The Tibetan delegation will return to Dharamsala next week.

The Envoys received their final instructions from the Dalai Lama on 23 June. The Prime Minister of the Tibetan government-in-exile, Samdhong Rinpoche, also attended the meeting between the Dalai Lama and his envoys.

The Dalai Lama hopes the process will move forward to bring about substantive negotiations on the Tibet problem.

It is for the first time that the talks between two sides were held outside China. The idea of periodic meetings at venues outside of China was discussed during the third session of talks in September 2004.

The direct communications between the two sides was broken since 1993. The relations resumed in September 2002.

China occupied Tibet in 1959 and the Dalai Lama fled to India and established the Tibetan government-in-exile in the northern Indian town of Dharamshala.

Beijing wants Dalai Lama to give up advocating for Tibetan independence and declare in public that he recognises Tibet and Taiwan as inalienable parts of China.

However, the Dalai Lama has reiterated from time to time that he wants greater autonomy, not independence, for Tibet, but Beijing has routinely accused him as a "splittist".

The Dalai Lama’s autonomy for Tibet is similar to the Hong Kong model of governance for the entire Tibetan ethnicity where Tibetans can practice their culture.

The visit may have come as a birthday gift for the Dalai Lama, who turns 70 on 6 July.