Bush will attend Beijing Olympics opening ceremony
Agence France-Presse
First Posted 08:17:00 07/04/2008
WASHINGTON -- US President George W. Bush will attend the August 8 opening ceremonies of the Beijing Olympic Games despite appeals from human rights activists that he boycott the gala, the White House said Thursday.
Bush, who had always said he would go to the Olympics to encourage US athletes and did not want to use the competition to make a political statement, will first travel to South Korea and Thailand, said spokeswoman Dana Perino.
"The president and Mrs Bush will travel to the Republic of Korea, Kingdom of Thailand, and People's Republic of China in August," she said in a statement that did not say when he would depart Washington or return.
The White House had said earlier this week that Bush would be in South Korea on August 5 and 6, but Perino later retracted that announcement as "premature" but "not inaccurate," while offering a "little bit of an apology" to Seoul.
In South Korea, Bush and South Korean President Lee Myung-Bak will discuss efforts to get their respective legislatures to ratify the US-South Korea free trade pact, amid violent protests in South Korea against a deal to resume US beef imports, said Perino.
In Thailand, Bush will "celebrate 175 years of the US-Thailand relationship" and discuss regional and bilateral issues with Thai Prime Minister Samak Sundaravej, she said.
In China, Bush will meet with President Hu Jintao and other top officials to discuss key issues including progress towards stripping North Korea of its nuclear programs, said Perino.
The US president heads to Japan Saturday for a summit of the Group of Eight industrialized nations as well as bilateral talks with leaders of Japan, Russia, Germany, India, China, and South Korea.
The news was all but certain to draw angry reactions from human rights groups, whose appeals to Bush to skip the opening ceremonies grew louder in mid-March amid charges that Chinese authorities violently repressed political unrest in Tibet.
Perino said earlier that Bush was "pleased" that Beijing was holding talks with representatives of the Dalai Lama, Tibet's spiritual leader, but stressed that his attendance at the opening ceremonies did not depend on the outcome.
"That's what the president has said before, which is he believes he's going to China to support, first and foremost, our athletes. He sees this as sporting competition," she said.
"But at the same time, just as he will this week when he sees President Hu, he'll talk to him about these important issues of human rights and especially religious freedom," said Perino.
"And every time he talks to President Hu, he talks to him about the importance of having a good relationship there with a peaceful man, of the Dalai Lama, but also, for all of China, that it's good to open up and to have better relations and to improve human rights there," she said.
The ceremonies are due to be held in the 80,000-seat National Stadium in Beijing -- nicknamed the Bird's Nest because of the intricate lattice work on its outer core.
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