Brussels: Dr Michael van Walt yesterday successfully concluded his visit to Brussels and left for The Hague, in the Netherlands, for further engagements.

On the last day of Dr. van Walt’s visit to Brussels, he met with Dr. Samuel Cogolati, Member and Vice-President of the Foreign Affairs Committee of the Belgian Federal Parliament. The two scholars, both with background in International law, engaged in a very serious discussion regarding the legal perspective of the China-Tibet conflict and also the obligation of the International Community to resolve it.

“In recent times the PRC has very cunningly instilled the idea that Tibetans are one of the many minorities of China and this is fundamentally wrong because this changes the very nature of the conflict from an international one to an internal one”, argues Dr. van Walt. Likewise, certain governments and media, though inadvertently, repeating the Chinese narrative that Tibet is part of China are in contravention of International law. There is therefore an urgent need to reset the framing.

Dr. Cogolati thanked Dr. van Walt for his visit and the Office of Tibet, Brussels, for organising the productive meeting and assured his continued support.

All the diplomats from the missions of like-minded countries, EU lawmakers and officials and representatives of NGOs that Dr van Walt engaged with during his hectic visit to Brussels showed an increased sensitivity and receptiveness to his presentation.

In the coming days, Dr. van Walt will continue his visit to other European countries for similar engagements.