Posted on 10/26/2009 8:51:39 AM PDT by TigerLikesRooster
Singh to Wen: Dalai Lama an honored guest
By John Ruwitch – Sun Oct 25, 7:11 am ET
HUA HIN, Thailand (Reuters) – India's Prime Minister Manmohan Singh rebuffed China's wishes that it bar the Dalai Lama from traveling to a disputed border area, telling Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao the Tibetan spiritual leader was an honored guest.
"I explained to Premier Wen that the Dalai Lama is our honored guest. He is a religious leader. We do not allow the Tibetan refugees to indulge in political activities," Singh told reporters on Sunday, a day after he and Wen held bilateral talks.
The Dalai Lama plans to make a week-long visit to the Indian state of Arunachal Pradesh which borders China in early November. Singh visited the region earlier this month, also to China's displeasure.
Beijing reviles the Nobel laureate monk as a dangerous separatist, and has protested against the trip saying it was further proof of the Dalai Lama's scheming.
But India, which has been home to the exiled Dalai Lama since he fled a failed Tibetan uprising against Chinese rule in 1959, has cleared the visit.
(Excerpt) Read more at news.yahoo.com ...
Ping!
For now. Bush had a brilliant idea to get them on our team against China in the coming Cold War... but now we have gone and seemingly switched sides.
Arunachal has a venerated and ancient Buddhist monastery there, withing spitting distance of the “border” that IIRC, briefly was the area where a firefight took place between Chinese and Indian troops in 1962.
The residents of Arunachal have no desire for Chinese “benevolence”.
So, will Richard Gere, Al Gore and all the rest make an appearance with the Lama in Inja?
Regarding your statement, here is an article that slams India written by the acerbic, pithy and biting Ravi Rikhye of ORBAT.
India - The Limp Wimp.
So the other day we were bemoaning India’s serial wimpiness re. China on the Indo-Tibet border. Turns out India is being even more wimpy than usual.
The Chinese, apparently, have taken to presenting Indian Kashmir as a separate country in publicity materials and maps, and have gone to the extent of issuing different visa to China bound Indians from Kashmir.
India’s reaction? India has expressed “bewilderment”.
....
And as a sidebar, when you google Arunachal Pradesh, the map presented certainly indicates a bow to China, the state is presented as a sort of no man’s land.
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