(TibetanReview.net, Jul28’25) – The President of the Czech Republic, Mr Petr Pavel, has on Jul 27 called on the Dalai Lama in Leh, capital of India’s Union Territory of Ladakh, where the latter has been sojourning since Jul 12, inviting “strong dissatisfaction and firm opposition” from the Chinese government. It was stated to be a return visit meant to honour the exile spiritual leader of Tibet on his milestone 90th birthday.
Pavel – who was accompanied by the Ambassador of the Czech Republic to India, Dr. Eliska Zigova; Deputy Head of Mission at the Embassy of the Czech Republic in New Delhi, Kateřina Petersen; and others – was received by top leaders of the Central Tibetan Administration (CTA) led by its Sikyong Mr Penpa Tsering at Thiksey Monastery.
Pavel then called on the exile spiritual leader of Tibet at his Shiwa Tsel Phodrang residence in Leh.
The Czech President personally congratulated the Dalai Lama on his 90th birthday, visiting him in India on a private trip after his visit to Japan, the Czech news agency CTK Jul 28 cited Pavel’s spokesman Filip Platos as saying.
Pavel also visited the local Sonamling Tibetan Settlement.
He told the media at the Sonamling reception that his visit was meant, firstly, to be a reciprocal gesture to the 1989 Nobel Peace laureate who had visited his country eleven times. He said it was also designed to express support for the CTA’s efforts for a swift resolution of the Tibet-China conflict through a mutually beneficial approach envisioned by His Holiness the Dalai Lama.
Pavel further said, “He (His Holiness) is not calling for an independent Tibet. He understands the Middle Way very well, and he only wants freedom of religion, freedom of expression, and freedom of language for his own people. And I think we should all support that.”
Later, at a gathering with top CTA leaders and the local Tibetan community, Pavel said he had come from a country so far away, in fact, in the centre of Europe, with very different culture, history, etc., “for the common reason we all have as human beings to want to live decent, enjoyable lives and prepare the best possible future for our children.”
“And we came to meet His Holiness the Dalai Lama to show him our support for your cause— that is, for you to have something that may seem luxurious, but is actually a basic right: the freedom to use your language, practice your religion, and preserve your culture.”
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On the same day, China expressed “strong dissatisfaction and firm opposition” to the Czech President’s insistence on meeting in India with the 14th Dalai Lama and “Penpou Tseringem” in “disregard for China’s solemn position and the overall China-Czech relationship”, suggesting that Pavel had ignored China’s prior opposition to his India plans.
The Chinese condemnation issued through a spokesperson from the Chinese Embassy in the Czech Republic also targeted the Dalai Lama, saying: “The 14th Dalai Lama is a political exile who, under the guise of religion, engages in anti China separatist activities and is by no means a mere religious figure. His ‘middle way’ seeks to carve out a ‘Greater Xizang’ covering one quarter of China’s territory — a region that has never existed historically — and thus amounts to de facto independence. This is something to which the Chinese government and people will never agree.”
“Xizang” is China’s name for Tibet, used by the Communist Party of China-state in an attempt to make the issue China’s internal affair rather than an internationally recognized Tibetan or Tibetan-Chinese one in its official narratives.
“The Xizang region has been an integral part of China’s territory since ancient times, that Xizang affairs are purely China’s internal affairs and allow no external interference,,” China’s official globaltimes.cn Jul 28 further quoted the spokesperson as saying.
Also targeting the CTA, the embassy spokesperson has said, “the ‘Tibetan government in exile’ is an organized, programmatic separatist political body striving for ‘independence’ of the region, recognized by no country, Czech included. China firmly opposes any official contacts between representatives of other countries and the Dalai Lama’s group.”
The embassy has called on the Czech side to “uphold its one China commitment, take effective measures at once to eliminate the adverse impact of this incident, cease sending any wrong signals to ‘Xizang independence’ separatist forces, and in deeds safeguard the healthy and stable development of China-Czech relations.”
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China expressed outrage over the Czech President’s India visit and the Tibetan meetings despite the President’s spokesperson and the Czech foreign ministry’s emphasis that they were strictly private.
Pavel was in Japan on a working trip from Jul 22, during which he met Emperor Naruhito.
“After the end of the programme in Japan, President Pavel went on a purely private trip, on which he was not accompanied by anyone from the Czech Presidential Office,” the CTK report quoted Platos as saying.
“The Dalai Lama had a significant life anniversary this month and invited President Pavel to the celebration. On return from a working visit to Japan, the President took the opportunity to detach himself from the delegation to personally congratulate the Dalai Lama,” Platos has added.
As regards Zigova’s presence with Pavel, the CTK report quoted the Czech Foreign Ministry spokesman Daniel Drake as saying, “It is standard practice for the embassy to be informed about private visits of the President and to accompany him in order to ensure his security.”
India is home to about 70,000 Tibetans, which is about half of what it used to be a couple of decades or so ago due to migration to the West, and the CTA is widely viewed as the Tibetan government-in-exile.