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Prince Charles talks to Indian president, meets Tibetan beauty queen

Agence France-Press Agence France-Press (AFP)

NEW DELHI, India, 30 October 2003 (AFP) – Britain's Prince Charles spent his first full day in India since visiting with his late wife Princess Diana 11 years ago meeting with India's president and attending a fashion show by Tibetan exiles.

At the British-built presidential palace, Charles met President Abdul Kalam, the architect of India's ballistic missile programme, for 40 minutes of talks officials described as "cordial and constructive."

The prince last visited the palace when he and Diana stayed there during their six-day trip to India in February 1992. The tour reinforced talk that their marriage was on the rocks as the couple preferred separate bedrooms in the 340-room Rashtrapati Bhavan.

The couple divorced in December 1992.

On Wednesday Charles also addressed Indians who have studied in Britain, saying the two countries shared a long history, and inspected New Delhi's metro service which started limited operations in December.

India was a colony of the British empire until its independence in 1947.

"This extraordinary bond has deep historic roots but is acutely modern in many of its manifestations and that modern relationship is driven by a healthy and shared perception that both countries have a lot to gain by building it further," he said.

"India and the United Kingdom are trading with each other and investing with each other as never before and I am told that bilateral trade grew by an astonishing 16 percent in the first six months of this year," he said.

The first of Prince Charles' nine days in India ended on a politically poignant note when the prince drove down to Majnu Ka Tilla, or Lover's Hill, on New Delhi's outskirts at the invitation of Tibetan exiles who live in the area.

Tibetan men and women staged a boisterous fashion show and presented skits as Miss Tibet 2003, Tsering Kyi, curtsied to the heir of the British crown who sat clapping and smiling.

"Your Highness, we presented the past of Tibet, the modern progresses we have made and we wish we could stage such a show in free Tibet with you as our chief dignitary," a Tibetan commentator said.

Tens of thousands of Tibetans followed their spiritual leader the Dalai Lama to India in 1959 after Beijing crushed an abortive anti-Chinese uprising in Lhasa.

Charles, who flew in Tuesday, will also tour the desert city of Jodhpur and Jaipur, where Diana publicly deflected a kiss from him after he won a game of polo there in 1992.

His previous trip ended disastrously when Charles left India for Nepal and Diana flew to the Indian city of Calcutta to meet Mother Teresa and then returned home alone.

His latest visit comes just after the release of the tell-all book A Royal Duty by Diana's former butler Paul Burrell, which reveals that Diana thought somebody was plotting a car crash against her. Diana died in a car accident in Paris in 1997.