With China trying to politicise the Winter Olympics by making a PLA commander, Qi Fabao, who was injured in the Galwan clash with Indian Army soldiers, the torchbearer at the event, India on Thursday unequivocally announced that its envoy would not attend the opening or closing ceremony of the Beijing Winter Olympics. “Regrettable that China has chosen to politicise the Olympics. The Indian envoy will not attend the opening or closing ceremony of the Beijing Winter Olympics,” Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) Spokesperson Arindam Bagchi said. This amounts to what is now known as a “diplomatic boycott” of the Games, which has been exercised by several countries, including India’s Quad partners, the United States, Japan and Australia.
“India’s chargé d’affaires in the Beijing embassy will not be attending the opening or closing ceremony of the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympics after China tried to politicise the Olympics,” Arindam Bagchi reiterated in what is being seen as a display of India’s displeasure and deep anguish over the development. Sources told The Daily Guardian that Indian diplomats will skip all Olympic events.
The People’s Liberation Army (PLA) regiment commander involved in the 15 June 2020 clash with India in Galwan Valley was chosen by China to carry the Winter Olympic torch in Beijing. With this in view, Bagchi described the Chinese action of honouring the commander as “regrettable”. “Regrettable that China has chosen to politicise the Olympics,” said the MEA spokesperson.
Diplomats in MEA also see this as India’s message to Russian President Vladimir Putin, who is in Beijing to attend the opening ceremony of the Winter Olympics, and is set to meet Chinese President Xi Jinping on Friday. “That India’s decision to skip Beijing Olympics due to the row over the Galwan soldier has come hours ahead of the Putin-Xi meet is a much-needed message to the Russian side as well,” says a senior diplomat. Sources say that the MEA will be watching closely the meeting between the Russian and Chinese leaders in Beijing. “Quad will definitely figure during the bilateral talks between Xi and Putin,” say sources. Putin is scheduled to attend the opening ceremony of the 2022 Winter Games. The Chinese leadership is aware of the upcoming meeting of the Quad foreign ministers with China as their key agenda.
In what is being seen as another diplomatic setback to Beijing, no Quad countries—US, India, Japan and Australia—are attending the ceremony. External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar is in regular touch with India’s ambassadors in US, China and Russia, sources add. Moreover, Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan, who will attend the event, is expected to meet the Chinese leadership. However, Imran was snubbed by Russia as Putin is said to have declined his request to have a bilateral meeting. The format of his meeting with Xi Jinping is still unknown.
In what comes as a shot in the arm for India, the US has also raised objections to China’s “nefarious and provocative” practices. While speaking up for India’s “sovereignty”, the United States’ Foreign Relations Committee member James Risch expressed objection over the appointment of the Galwan soldier as a torch bearer at the Beijing Winter Olympics. Condemning the Xi Jinping-led regime for having inducted the aforesaid soldier, the US Senator from Idaho termed the act as “shameful”. He mentioned the Galwan clash with India and atrocities inflicted on Uyghur Muslims by the Chinese Army and how the ceremonial torch bearing act glorified Beijing’s ill motives. In fact, the torchbearer was one of the commanding officers who was involved in the India-China clashes at Ladakh’s Galwan Valley in 2020.