Editorial: At least Key is being upfront over Dalai Lama

Opinion

It seems no time since the Dalai Lama was last here, causing the usual diplomatic contortions for our representatives.

Prime Minister Helen Clark "happened" to meet him in a Brisbane airport lounge and avoided him here.

Foreign Minister Winston Peters put on his New Zealand First leader's hat to meet him quietly.

National Party leader John Key said he could not meet him but the exiled Tibetan figurehead could "drop in", which he did.

It is in fact two and a half years since the Dalai Lama was last here and next month he is coming again.

This time, Mr Key is being more blunt. He says he will not meet the Dalai Lama because there is no particular reason to do so. Indeed there is not. The only reason the Dalai Lama Trust can offer is that Mr Key said soon after taking office that he would meet him, "should his diary permit".

The diary is often the lame excuse leaders offer to placate China's sensibilities.

This time, the Prime Minister is making no pretence that he is considering anything other than China. He says he told President Hu Jintao at Apec last week he would not be meeting the Dalai Lama, and not in response to a Chinese Government request.

Mr Key plainly knows which side butters New Zealand's bread, and implicitly offers less sympathy for Tibetan national aspirations than a carefully planned "chance" meeting might do.

We might yet see another set-up of some sort in Auckland next month but we can hope not.

We said Helen Clark should have met the Dalai Lama formally for the sake of free expression, human rights and common courtesy. Those principles demand no less from Mr Key.

But if he has different priorities, he is at least being upfront about it, so far.