Sarkozy meets Dalai Lama

When French president Nicholas Sarkozy announced that he would be meeting the Dalai Lama by the end of 2008, anger rose amongst the people of the Chinese capital. The person of the highest rank in France was faced with strong protests and threatening actions such as scrapping a China-EU summit in France and a multi-billion dollars trade deal between the two countries.
Nevertheless, the president did not put an eye on these issues, and met the Dalai Lama on 6 December in Gdansk, Poland.
He is the first European Head of State to meet the exiled Tibetan leader while holding the EU’s rotating presidency.
Minutes prior to the meeting, Mr. Sarkozy said “One must approach this calmly.” He further added that the world needs an open China that participates in global governance and China in turn needs a powerful Europe that provides work to the Chinese enterprise. The big man of France explained that he never hesitated whenever the subject was brought up.
No kinds of start of boycott of French products were recorded so far, a French official said. The official also expressed the fact that France and China need each other especially during the economic crisis. This is similar to what the Dalai Lama said during the meeting.
“The Chinese believes that the French have the power to implore strict discipline among the countries of the European Union, however, the French are actually not the teacher of the European classroom.” said the French official during a conference with reporters in Paris.