Dalai Lama lauds Fukuda backing

Chiharu Mori / Yomiuri Shimbun Correspondent

NOTTINGHAM, England--The Dalai Lama, who is currently visiting Britain, on Sunday expressed his appreciation of Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda's series of remarks on Tibet, in an exclusive interview with The Yomiuri Shimbun.

"We very much appreciate them," the Dalai Lama said in the interview in this city in central England.

The exiled Tibetan spiritual leader also urged Japan to send further clear messages to China with regard to human rights issues.

"If you are a close friend [of China], it is important to make clear your friend's mistake," the Dalai Lama said.

The Dalai Lama also said he planned to visit Japan around November, after the Beijing Olympics.

When Chinese Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi visited Japan in April, Fukuda reportedly told Yang that China has to "squarely face the reality that the situation in Tibet has become an international issue."

In his meeting with Chinese President Hu Jintao in Tokyo in May, Fukuda asked Hu to make further efforts to dispel the concerns of the international community over the issue.

The Dalai Lama welcomed the Japanese government's firm stance against China, which insists that the Tibet issue is an internal affair, saying Fukuda's comments "were helpful to make clear some mistakes, [some] wrong policy carried out by the Chinese government."