German Chancellor not planning to attend Olympics opening

0 Comments | AFP, March, 2008

BRDO PRI KRANJU, Slovenia (AFP) — German Foreign Minister Frank-walter Steinmeier said Friday that neither he nor Chancellor Angela Merkel plan to attend the Bejing Olympics opening, but implied this was not linked to Tibet.

Steinmeier, arriving for a meeting with his EU counterparts in Brdo Pri Kranju, just north of the Slovenian capital Ljubljana, suggested non-attendance would not amount to any boycott of the summer games on account of China's crackdown on protests in Tibet.

"The sports minister (Wolfgang Schauble) does not plan to participate, and I don't think the Chancellor or I will," he told reporters as he arrived at the start of two days of talks.

He added that there had been "no need to scrap anything" as there had never been any plans to attend...