A staff member holds a safety lantern of the Olympic flame for the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympics, during a ceremony of the flame exhibition tour at Beijing University of Posts and Telecommunications in Beijing, China December 9, 2021. REUTERS/Carlos Garcia Rawlins
December 9, 2021
PARIS (Reuters) -France will not follow the lead of some other Western governments and boycott the Winter Olympics in Beijing in February although any human rights abuses in China must be condemned, the education minister said on Tuesday,
However, the French foreign minister said Paris should take a common stand with other European Union countries on a possible diplomatic boycott.
The United States, Canada, Australia and Britain all said this week that their government officials will not attend the Games in order to send China a message over its human rights record.
“As for a diplomatic boycott…France will not do it,” Education Minister Jean-Michel Blanquer said on BFM TV. “Sports is a world in itself, which must be protected from political interference.”
Sports Minister Roxana Maracineanu will attend the Beijing Olympics, he said. But violations of human rights in China must be condemned, he added.
French Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian, speaking at a joint news conference with his German counterpart Annalena Baerbock in Paris – said there was a need for a common European stand on the issue of a diplomatic boycott of the Games in Beijing.
Paris is due to host the summer Olympic Games in 2024.
(Reporting by Benoit Van Overstraeten and John Irish; Writing by Geert De Clercq; Editing by Alison Williams and Angus MacSwan)
