June 15: National leader John Key is to meet the Dalai Lama when he visits New Zealand next week.
National Party foreign spokesman Murray McCully is meeting the Dalai Lama on Tuesday morning and Mr Key would drop in for a talk.
Yesterday Prime Minister Helen Clark had a 10-minute discussion on non-political issues with Tibet’s spiritual leader in an airport lounge, before they boarded the same flight from Brisbane to Sydney.
Green MP Keith Locke called on the prime minister to have a proper meeting.
China has reacted angrily to Australian Prime Minister John Howard and opposition leader Kevin Rudd’s decision to meet the Dalai Lama.
Foreign Minister Winston Peters has said he will meet the Dalai Lama on Tuesday, in his capacity as the leader of New Zealand First.
The Dalai Lama, winner of the 1989 Nobel Peace Prize, fled into exile in India in 1959 after a failed Tibetan uprising against Communist rule.
China, which rules Tibet with military force, regarded the Dalai Lama as a troublemaker bent on promoting Tibetan independence.
China has used diplomatic pressure to discourage governments from meeting with him, or otherwise showing him support.
