A spokesman for the Russian Foreign Ministry said it had decided to grant the Dalai Lama a visa, but hours later said that the decision could be reconsidered -- the uncertainty apparently reflecting Moscow's fear of angering China.
Moscow had rejected previous requests three times, saying it considers Tibet to be "an inalienable part of China," and has refrained from any official contacts with the Dalai Lama.
But Alexander Yakovenko, the top Russian Foreign Ministry spokesman, said in a statement Friday that the Dalai Lama would be allowed to travel to the majority-Buddhist Kalmykia republic and his visit would be of a "solely confessional character."
"We relate with respect to the desire of the more than 1 million Buddhists in our country who have appealed more than once for a pastoral visit by the Dalai Lama," Yakovenko said.
"Bearing that in mind, and also taking into account the fact that the church is divided from the state in the Russian Federation, it was decided to give the Dalai Lama a visa to visit the Kalmyk Republic," Yakovenko said.
But hours later, Yakovenko told reporters that the "unnecessary uproar being created around the Dalai Lama's possible trip to Kalmykia raises doubts about its excessively pastoral character," the Interfax news agency reported. "Because of that, the issue of the dates of the visit and of issuing a visa to him remains open."
Earlier in the day, Yakovenko said the Dalai Lama was scheduled to sanctify a Buddhist temple in Elista, the Kalmyk capital, and that no meetings with Russian officials were planned.
The statement came after Kirsan Ilyumzhinov, the head of Russia's Kalmykia region -- where half of the 300,000 residents are Buddhists -- invited the Dalai Lama to visit this weekend.
Yakovenko stressed that Russia's position remained that Tibet was part of China.
"China is our strategic partner and we accord great significance to the development of Russian-Chinese relations," he said, adding that Tibet is an internal matter for China.
Since the 1991 Soviet collapse, China has developed friendly ties with Russia and has become the No. 1 customer for Russian arms manufacturers. In 2001, Russia and China signed a friendship treaty that included an article affirming Russia's support for China's territorial integrity.
China occupied Tibet in 1951 and claims the Himalayan region has been Chinese territory for centuries.
The Dalai Lama fled into exile in India after an aborted uprising against Chinese rule in 1959.
Asian perspectives of the US have shifted from a country once perceived as a force of “moral legitimacy” to something akin to “a landlord seeking rent,” Singaporean Minister for Defence Ng Eng Hen (黃永宏) said on the sidelines of an international security meeting. Ng said in a round-table discussion at the Munich Security Conference in Germany that assumptions undertaken in the years after the end of World War II have fundamentally changed. One example is that from the time of former US president John F. Kennedy’s inaugural address more than 60 years ago, the image of the US was of a country
‘UNUSUAL EVENT’: The Australian defense minister said that the Chinese navy task group was entitled to be where it was, but Australia would be watching it closely The Australian and New Zealand militaries were monitoring three Chinese warships moving unusually far south along Australia’s east coast on an unknown mission, officials said yesterday. The Australian government a week ago said that the warships had traveled through Southeast Asia and the Coral Sea, and were approaching northeast Australia. Australian Minister for Defence Richard Marles yesterday said that the Chinese ships — the Hengyang naval frigate, the Zunyi cruiser and the Weishanhu replenishment vessel — were “off the east coast of Australia.” Defense officials did not respond to a request for comment on a Financial Times report that the task group from
BLIND COST CUTTING: A DOGE push to lay off 2,000 energy department workers resulted in hundreds of staff at a nuclear security agency being fired — then ‘unfired’ US President Donald Trump’s administration has halted the firings of hundreds of federal employees who were tasked with working on the nation’s nuclear weapons programs, in an about-face that has left workers confused and experts cautioning that the Department of Government Efficiency’s (DOGE’s) blind cost cutting would put communities at risk. Three US officials who spoke to The Associated Press said up to 350 employees at the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) were abruptly laid off late on Thursday, with some losing access to e-mail before they’d learned they were fired, only to try to enter their offices on Friday morning
CONFIDENT ON DEAL: ‘Ukraine wants a seat at the table, but wouldn’t the people of Ukraine have a say? It’s been a long time since an election, the US president said US President Donald Trump on Tuesday criticized Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy and added that he was more confident of a deal to end the war after US-Russia talks. Trump increased pressure on Zelenskiy to hold elections and chided him for complaining about being frozen out of talks in Saudi Arabia. The US president also suggested that he could meet Russian President Vladimir Putin before the end of the month as Washington overhauls its stance toward Russia. “I’m very disappointed, I hear that they’re upset about not having a seat,” Trump told reporters at his Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida when asked about the Ukrainian
RSS