Brussels - China has postponed a summit with the European Union planned for Monday in protest at a visit of the Dalai Lama to Europe, diplomats in Brussels said Wednesday. The Chinese government has asked for the summit to be put back because the exiled Tibetan leader is set to meet a number of European leaders at a gathering of Nobel Peace Prize winners called by the founder of Poland's Solidarity trade union, Lech Walesa, an EU statement said.
The gathering in Gdansk, birthplace of Solidarity, is set to celebrate the 25th anniversary of Walesa's winning the prize.
And at the event, the Dalai Lama - Nobel Peace Prize winner in 1989 - was set to appear alongside EU leaders, including French President Nicolas Sarkozy, current holder of the bloc's rotating presidency, and the head of the EU executive, Jose Manuel Barroso.
China has in the past clashed fiercely with EU member states over the question of the Dalai Lama, who is a popular figure in Europe, but whom Beijing sees as the leader of the Tibetan separatist movement.
In September 2007, the Chinese government reacted angrily to a meeting between the Tibetan leader and German Chancellor Angela Merkel, calling it an interference in Chinese internal affairs.
Such clashes have become an increasingly sensitive issue in recent years as China has become the EU's second most important trading partner, after the United States, and its single most important source of manufactured imports.
The EU had "set ambitious objectives" for the summit, planned for the French city of Lyon, and "regrets" the Chinese decision, the statement said.
The 27-member bloc "intends to continue promoting its strategic partnership with China, especially in a moment when the global financial and economic situation calls for very close cooperation between Europe and China," it said.
