The course will be uncovered on Thursday during an interrogation in the Tibet Commission. It examines the handling of official Chinese visits. But it also looks at the increasing pressure that China has put on Denmark – especially when it comes to issues concerning Tibet, Xinjiang and Taiwan.
A number of internal emails between the officials of the two ministries are displayed on screens.
Prior to the elected representative’s meeting with the Dalai Lama, the then director of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Kim Jørgensen, wrote the following:
“We had a similar case last year where I had to call Mette G twice, which led to her ‘getting sick’.”
He thus referred to the fact that Mette Gjerskov in 2014 canceled at the last minute an otherwise planned meeting with Lobsang Sangay, who was prime minister in the Tibetan government in exile.
Mette Gjerskov was chairman of the Foreign Policy Board. But she wanted to hold the meeting as an ordinary member of parliament.
During the interrogation on Thursday, she explains that she was actually ill. In the morning she had eaten panodils to get fresh for the afternoon.
– I remember it in such a way that I was not persuaded to go to bed sick, she says.
Mette Gjerskov has read the numerous emails between the officials from her assistant.
– I was surprised that it came up to such a high level and with that intensity, says Gjerskov.
At the very top of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, they were on the cusp of the politician’s activities. Thus, head of department Ulrik Vestergaard Knudsen wrote: “But she is still upn chairman – even when she meets” privately “with Lobsang”. UPN stands for the Foreign Policy Board.
He suggested that the Prime Minister take action. And so it became.
– I remember the message, which was that they preferred to see that I did not hold that meeting, says Mette Gjerskov. She got the call from Prime Minister Helle Thorning-Schmidt’s (S) special adviser, Thomas Juul-Dam.
Source: The Nordic Page