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TOKYO: The European Union said Thursday it will press China in talks this week to engage in a dialogue with the Dalai Lama to bring about "concrete improvement" in people's lives in restive Tibet.
An EU delegation including European Commission chief Jose Manuel Barroso is holding two days of talks from Thursday with President Hu Jintao and other Chinese leaders.
The EU calls come after Tibetan spiritual leader Dalai Lama sent a letter on March 19 to China's President Hu Jintao offering to send emissaries to Tibet to calm down tensions following Beijing's crackdown, the Dalai Lama's special envoy said on Wednesday.
"His Holiness expressed his deepest concerns about the situation (in Tibet) and offered to send his emissaries to help calm the situation and explain to Tibetans," envoy Lodi Gyari told reporters in Washington.
Trade frictions and the fight against climate change are set to be the top issues in the China-EU summit, which was scheduled before unrest broke out last month in Tibet against Beijing's controversial rule.
But Tibet will also be "high on the agenda," EU External Relations Commissioner Benita Ferrero-Waldner told reporters in Tokyo before leaving for Beijing.
"Our message to the Chinese government will certainly be, 'engage in a constructive and in a substantial dialogue which addresses the core issues,'" she said, calling for "high-level" talks with the Dalai Lama.
"What is the core issue for us? It is how to achieve concrete improvement of the situation of the Tibetans," she said.
China was also holding high-level talks Thursday with France after relations were soured, in part by French President Nicolas Sarkozy's threats to shun the opening of the Beijing Olympics in August.
The Dalai Lama, Tibet's spiritual leader, fled in 1959 to northern India after a failed uprising against China's controversial rule of the Himalayan region.
China has accused the 72-year-old monk of stirring up major protests last month in Tibet in a bid to scuttle the Beijing Olympics and has bristled at pro-Tibet demonstrations during the Olympic torch's worldwide relay.
The Dalai Lama, a Nobel Peace Prize winner, advocates non-violence and says he is seeking greater autonomy and cultural freedoms for Tibet within China.
"Of course we understand the sensitivity on sovereignty in China, but I think it is also fair to ask to respect the Tibetans' culture and also their traditions," Ferrero-Waldner said.
"We indeed support a peaceful reconciliation between the Chinese authorities and the Dalai Lama and his representatives," she said. "This can be made through a sincere dialogue."
China opened a dialogue with envoys from the Dalai Lama in 2002 but the talks yielded few results.
The Dalai Lama's chief envoy, Lodi Gyari, said Wednesday in Washington that the exiled Tibetan leader has written a letter to China's President Hu Jintao offering to send emissaries to help calm the situation.
The Western reaction to the unrest has led to a strong backlash in China.
Ferrero-Waldner said that Chinese calls to boycott the French supermarket chain Carrefour were "going too far."
"If there is a conflict or a crisis, normally the population closes ranks behind you," Ferrero-Waldner said.
"I think the Chinese authorities have tried to somewhat constrain or restrict this nationalism and I think this is responsible behaviour because it should certainly not get out of hand," she said. - AFP/ac
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