Beijing (AsiaNews/Agencies) – For the second time in three days, i.e. since German Chancellor Angela Merkel met the Dalai Lama on Sunday, China has cancelled a top-level meeting with a German minister. Chinese Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi cancelled a breakfast meeting with his German counterpart, Frank-Walter Steinmeier, in New York this week.

“It is traditional that the foreign minister meets his Chinese counterpart for a breakfast during the week in which the UN holds its General Assembly,” Mr Jaeger told a regular government news conference. “We have heard from the Chinese side that this breakfast will not be able to take place this year because of time constraints.”

“We are talking with our Chinese contacts to try to find another time to meet within the week,” he added.

The German government signalled yesterday that it was trying to ease diplomatic tensions triggered by the Dalai Lama's visit, and wants to reschedule a meeting with Chinese justice officials that was meant to take place on Sunday but was cancelled for “technical” reasons.

Deputy German Government Spokesman Thomas Steg said yesterday: “We hope that these technical reasons can be eliminated and that we can set a new time for a meeting.”

Ms Merkel's foreign policy adviser Christoph Heusgen phoned China's ambassador to Germany to assure him that Berlin valued and wanted to deepen its ties with China

For the German government the meeting between Ms Merkel and the Dalai Lama was strictly “private” and that the Chancellor backed peaceful demands for Tibet’s cultural autonomy.

But for Chinese Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Jiang Yu, the meeting “not only grossly interfered with the internal affairs of China, it seriously hurt the feelings of the Chinese people and undermined China-Germany relations.”

“China expresses its strong dissatisfaction," she said at a regularly scheduled news conference.