03. Jul 2006
Dalai Lama not invited to religious meeting
(Interfax) The organisers of the Moscow Religious Summit have not invited the Dalai-Lama to the forum because "they do not want to endanger the Buddhist spiritual leader's emerging dialogue with the Chinese authorities", Metropolitan of Kaliningrad and Smolensk Kirill, head of the Moscow Patriarchate Department for External Church Relations, told Rossiya television. "The following problems have arisen regarding the Dalai-Lama. As you know, the Dalai-Lama has quite difficult relations with the leadership of the People's Republic of China", he said. "We also know that certain steps have been taken to accommodate each other's needs. We would not like to create difficulties for this process by inviting the Dalai-Lama, or even to endanger this process at the most crucial moment", he said. The director of the Chinese State Administration for Religious Affairs Director, Ye Xiaowen, praised the organisation of a World Summit of Religious Leaders taking place in Moscow and thanked the Russian government for its understanding on the issue of Dalai Lama XIV's visit to Russia.