New Delhi: India’s charge’ d’affaires in Beijing will not attend the opening or the closing ceremony of the Beijing Winter Olympics, the Ministry of External Affairs said on Thursday. The move comes in the backdrop of China politicizing the Winter Olympics by honoring People’s Liberation Army’s commander Qi Fabio, who had suffered several injuries during the Galwan valley clash, as the torchbearer of the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympics on Wednesday.
The move has provoked New Delhi, as China once again brought up the border issue with India in front of the international community, even as both sides continue talks on disengagement along the Line of Actual Control (LAC).
While commenting on the development, former ambassador Anil Trigunayat in an interview with ETV Bharat said, “What China has done today appears to be a ‘willful chicanery’ on their part, which has undermined some of the latent goodwill that we have for these sports. This was below the belt stuff and was not needed. If China was interested in good relations with India, they should not have done something which has such a symbolic negative fallout, as far as India is concerned. I welcome the government’s decision of boycotting official participation in the Winter Olympics from the diplomatic side”.
Anil Trinugayat noted that politics should be kept away from the games but it did not happen. “These Chinese games are happening under the shadow of a US-China cold conflict, which has been going on for quite some time now. This was more driven by geopolitics. India wanted to have the regional spirit and the sports spirit”, he added.
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In response to ETV Bharat's question at the weekly press briefing today, Ministry of External Affairs spokesperson Arindam Bagchi said, “It is indeed regrettable that the Chinese side has chosen to politicize the event like the Olympics.
After the announcement from MEA, DD has decided not to telecast live, the Opening and Closing ceremonies of the Winter Olympics being held in Beijing.
However, to maintain the sportsman spirit, India will be sending an athlete for participating in the winter games. Meanwhile, China has hit out at different countries, especially the West for a diplomatic boycott of the winter Olympics. Many countries including the US, UK, Australia has said that their officials would not attend the opening ceremony citing reasons like China’s human rights violation in the western province of Xinjiang.
The Beijing Winter Olympics will open on Friday, February 4, to be attended by Chinese President Xi Jinping including world leaders like Russian President Vladamir Putin, Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan as well leaders of five Central Asian countries.
