Edison Chen
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Norway’s ruling politicians may refuse to meet with the Dalai Lama when he visits Oslo next month to avoid angeringChina.
The hesitation is part of an effort to ease tensions with the world’s second-largest economy that have festered since Norway’s Nobel committee awarded jailed Chinese dissident Liu Xiaobo the Peace Prize in 2010.
“We need to focus on our relationship with China and should remember that should the Norwegian government meet the Dalai Lama it could become difficult to normalize our relationship with China,” Foreign Minister Boerge Brende said today to reporters in parliament after a debate on the issue. The government has yet to make a final decision on the matter, he said.
Olemic Thommessen, the speaker of the parliament, said yesterday he will avoid meeting with the 78-year-old religious leader, who is visiting at the invitation of the Nobel Institute to commemorate the 25th anniversary of his own Peace Prize.
“What I want to achieve is to contribute to improving the relationship with China,” the speaker said in a televised interview yesterday with broadcaster NRK. “It’s at a freezing point today. Since 2010, Norway has had no political communication with China.”
China in 2010 broke off high-level contacts with Norway after the Peace Prize was awarded to the dissident. The dispute has also strained trade relations between the two countries, disrupting salmon exports from the Nordic country.
The hesitation is part of an effort to ease tensions with the world’s second-largest economy that have festered since Norway’s Nobel committee awarded jailed Chinese dissident Liu Xiaobo the Peace Prize in 2010.
“We need to focus on our relationship with China and should remember that should the Norwegian government meet the Dalai Lama it could become difficult to normalize our relationship with China,” Foreign Minister Boerge Brende said today to reporters in parliament after a debate on the issue. The government has yet to make a final decision on the matter, he said.
Olemic Thommessen, the speaker of the parliament, said yesterday he will avoid meeting with the 78-year-old religious leader, who is visiting at the invitation of the Nobel Institute to commemorate the 25th anniversary of his own Peace Prize.
“What I want to achieve is to contribute to improving the relationship with China,” the speaker said in a televised interview yesterday with broadcaster NRK. “It’s at a freezing point today. Since 2010, Norway has had no political communication with China.”
China in 2010 broke off high-level contacts with Norway after the Peace Prize was awarded to the dissident. The dispute has also strained trade relations between the two countries, disrupting salmon exports from the Nordic country.
