Spirit of Havel's friendship with Dalai Lama lives on: Czech foreign minister

Dharamsala, Feb 28 The spirit of Vaclav Havel's friendship with Tibetan spiritual leader the Dalai Lama lives on, remarked Czech foreign minister Jan Lipavsky on Tuesday on meeting representative of the Central Tibetan Administration (CTA) in New Delhi.

On the sidelines of the ongoing G20 foreign ministers meeting, Lipavsky met with Norzin Dolma, CTA's Minister for the Department of Information and International Relations.

After the meeting with the Tibetan delegates, the Czech Foreign Minister tweeted, "It was a pleasure to meet again with representatives of Tibetans in exile during my visit to India.

"The friendship between Vaclav Havel and His Holiness the Dalai Lama lives on," he said, adding the meeting was a productive exchange of views on mutual priorities and concerns.

Lobsang Shastri, a representative at the Bureau of His Holiness the Dalai Lama in New Delhi, said the meeting cemented the continued support of the Czech Republic for Tibet and the Tibetan people.

On December 18, 2011, at the age of 75, Vaclav Havel passed away. The last president of Czechoslovakia and first president of the Czech Republic, Havel was the playwright-cum-politician who led the Velvet Revolution that ended Communist rule in his eastern European nation.

Just a week before his passing, Havel met with His Holiness in Prague. The Dalai Lama glowingly described his friend.

Upon hearing news of Havel's death, the Dalai Lama said in a letter from his office that "the world has lost a great statesman whose steadfast and unflinching determination played a key role in bringing freedom and democracy to the then Czechoslovakia. He was an unassuming and a courageous leader."

The Dalai Lama has been living in India since fleeing his homeland in 1959. The Tibetan administration in exile is based in the hill town of Dharamsala in Himachal Pradesh.