Estonian President Alar Karis has refused to attend the Winter Olympics to be held in Beijing, China, next February. This decision was taken by the Head of State for political reasons. On December 12, the local television and radio broadcast portal reports. BE MISTAKEN.
“Alar Karis in an interview with Kanal2 TV channel said he was not considering going to the Winter Olympics in China for political reasons,” the statement said.
According to the broadcaster, the Estonian leader stressed that the decision was taken “with the leaders of the neighboring countries”.
On December 9, a spokesperson for the Estonian government told the portal that the question of whether any of the country’s leaders will attend the Beijing Olympics had not yet been discussed in the cabinet. A similar statement was made to the Republic’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
At the same time, the press service of the Estonian Ministry of Culture confirmed that it had received an invitation to the Games, but said that the decision to travel to the PRC by the head of the department Tiit Terik and the vice-chancellor Tarvi Pyurn n has not yet been done.
According to the ERR, the position of the Estonian authorities regarding the Olympics could also depend on the common position of the European Union, which will most likely be discussed at a meeting of EU foreign ministers next week.
Earlier, on December 6, the United States announced its decision to organize a diplomatic boycott of the Beijing Winter Olympics. It was noted that this step will not affect the participation of US athletes in the Games. The reason for the decision in Washington has been called “the genocide in Xinjiang and other human rights violations.”
A day later, the International Olympic Committee announced that it respected the American decision. The representative of the organization expressed the opinion that the presence or absence of government officials and diplomats at the Games is a personal decision of each government. At the same time, according to IOC President Thomas Bach, the Olympic Games will cease to exist if the IOC renounces political neutrality. He said the Games cannot be politicized.
Australia announced a diplomatic boycott of the Winter Olympics on December 8. However, the country’s national team will participate in the competition as planned prior to this decision.
In turn, British Prime Minister Boris Johnson said on Wednesday that Britain did not support a sports boycott of the 2022 Olympics in China, but the country’s ministers were not planning to attend the event. On the same day, Canada supported a diplomatic boycott of the Games.
On December 9, the official representative of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Russian Federation, Maria Zakharova, drew attention to the fact that about the adoption of such decisions by a number of countries, one can talk of the collapse of world sport. According to her, the United States wants to dominate completely, according to its own rules.
Also on Thursday, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Wang Wenbin stressed that the United States, Canada, Australia and the United Kingdom would pay for the boycott of the 2022 Olympics. He also assured that the absence of officials from some countries at the 2022 Olympics will not affect its success.
The XXIV Olympic Winter Games will be held in Beijing from February 4 to 20, 2022. The capital of the PRC has been chosen to host the session of the International Olympic Committee in Kuala Lumpur on July 31, 2015.
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