All five Central Asian Presidents attend Winter Olympics opening

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, February 5

All five Central Asian Presidents, besides Russian President Vladimir Putin and Pakistan PM Imran Khan, were among the several leaders who attended the opening ceremony of the Beijing Winter Olympics that was also marked by a diplomatic boycott for separate reasons by India on one hand and the West on the other.

Significantly, just over a week back, the five Central Asian Presidents had not participated in India’s Republic Day celebrations due to the Covid scare but they had joined a virtual summit hosted by PM Narendra Modi on January 27.

The political reverberations from China staging the event among allegations of its aggressive behavior towards neighbouring countries as well as its own Tibetan and Uyghur minorities continued as Taipei protested an Olympics-eve joint statement by Putin and Chinese President Xi Jinping that opposed any form of independence for Taiwan. Seoul criticised China’s “cultural appropriation” after a woman appeared to be wearing the Korean traditional dress as part of China’s different ethnic groups during the opening ceremony.

India did not send its Chargé D’Affaires in Beijing for the opening ceremony after China included Qi Fabao, a participant in the Galwan Valley clashes, as a torchbearer for the Olympic flame. Prasar Bharti also blanked out the live broadcast of the games. —

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