Conflicts 'loom large' over Olympics as Macron welcomes world leaders
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00:00Well, the games, of course, are a diplomatic event as well, with French President Emmanuel
00:03Macron welcoming more than 100 heads of state.
00:07Guests include Argentina's President Javier Millet, Britain's new Labor Prime Minister
00:11Keir Starmer, and U.S. First Lady Jill Biden.
00:15The Israeli President Isaac Herzog will also be there under tight security, as will the
00:19head of the Palestinian Olympic Committee, representing Palestinian Authority leader
00:24Mahmoud Abbas.
00:25Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has not confirmed whether he will attend, while
00:29Russian President Vladimir Putin is not invited due to the war in Ukraine.
00:35Well, these games come at a time not only of global conflict, including in Gaza and
00:40Ukraine, but also political turmoil here in France.
00:43For more, we can bring in our international affairs commentator, Douglas Herbert.
00:46Doug, I think it's fair to say that these games come at a particularly tense time.
00:51Look, you know, you can almost take that sentence, Alison, and apply it to any games, right?
00:55When is the world completely at peace, just because it's an Olympic game?
00:59But it does seem, it's not going out on a limb to suggest that the world seems particularly
01:04restive right now.
01:05There seems to be a lot of geopolitical fraughtness, if you will.
01:11And look, the Olympic, you know, this Olympic truce idea, which Emmanuel Macron has called
01:17for, which the organizing committee have called for time and again in leading up to this Olympics,
01:21none of them had any illusions that it was going to lead to all of a sudden all of the
01:26warring nations, all the conflicts, just calling it off for the next 16 days.
01:30But there are two major wars, one right here on the doorstep of Europe in Ukraine right
01:35now, Russia's war of aggression against Ukraine, and also obviously the ongoing horrific conflict
01:41in the Middle East, the raging war in Gaza right now as a result of the Hamas attacks
01:46on October 7th.
01:48Both of those conflicts are not just looming large, they are looming, you know, giantly
01:52over these Olympics.
01:54The security, you mentioned the Israeli president and the Israeli delegation, very tight security
01:59accompanying them as well.
02:00The Russians, you know, aren't even here because of the war in Ukraine.
02:06And there's a real sense, you know, people are preoccupied right now.
02:09In the United States, it's almost like there's talk in the media there that, you know, the
02:12big network they're sponsoring these Olympics, NBC, paid billions for these Olympics, for
02:17the rights to cover them.
02:18And some people are saying, well, how many people are actually going to watch?
02:21They're worried about ratings.
02:22People are so preoccupied, especially with the upheaval in the American presidential
02:27race.
02:28There's a lot of eyeballs on that.
02:29The question is, you say, so this is supposed to be a break, a time where everyone is festive
02:33for a while, forgets all their other worries.
02:36If they're fighting, put their arms down.
02:38That's not going to happen.
02:39We're not going to see what we saw very briefly in 2018 in Pyeongchang, South Korea.
02:43You might remember this, where South and North Korea both marched into the Olympic Stadium
02:48under a single banner.
02:50The world's like, what's that about?
02:51It's not going to happen yet.
02:52We're not going to see that coming together between two arch adversaries or nemeses.
02:57Just, you know, on the contrary, we're going to see a lot of physical separation in the
03:01Olympic Village.
03:02For obvious reasons, the Israeli delegation, the Palestinian delegation of athletes are
03:07being kept at a distance.
03:08There's been a lot of logistical nightmares trying to figure out, you know, who right
03:12now hates whom and who should we keep apart.
03:14It's going to be very, very tough.
03:16The Olympic spirit may be there, and a lot of people are very much enthusiastic and ready
03:20to cheer over the next 16 days.
03:22But there's also, looming large, the weighty concerns of the world.
03:25They just, you can't brush them away, even for the Olympics.
03:28Yeah, I've heard that the Ukrainian delegation is upset that any Russian athletes are participating
03:32at all, even if not under the Russian flag.
03:35Tell us more about what that dynamic is like and how these games are also viewed back in
03:39Russia.
03:40Well, Russia's furious at what it sees as a snub by the West, an unjustified one.
03:46You know, the Olympic Committee, it was very clear.
03:48You know, previously, Russian athletes had been banned because of doping scandals.
03:53But since 2022, it's been another issue, and it's been Russia's invasion of Ukraine.
03:57And that is exactly the reason right now that there's only 15 Russian athletes and a handful
04:02of Belarusians, because the vassal state of Belarus, it's a vassal state to Russia, essentially.
04:07Belarusian athletes will be accompanying them.
04:10The fact they're only 15, as opposed to, I think it was 330 or something Russian athletes
04:13in Tokyo.
04:14And even back then, there were, you know, some bans on Russian athletes.
04:17They will all be competing, not as Russians with the Russian flag and the Russian anthem.
04:21They will be completing as independent, neutral athletes.
04:25That's a designation.
04:27They will have a special independent, neutral athlete hymn played if they do win medals.
04:31Basically, they will be stripped of any affiliation with Russia itself.
04:35There's been a lot of backlash in Russia to the fact that any Russian athletes are participating.
04:39These games will not be shown anywhere in Russia.
04:42If you want to watch them, I guess you have to fly to Europe or find some firewall to
04:45watch them through streaming on some outside channel.
04:48You can't see them in Russia.
04:50The Russians are framing this really as just another chapter in their existential struggle
04:55with the West, the West out to get them, the West out to humiliate Russia.
04:59There is no talk of the actual reason for this ban, which is its invasion of Ukraine.
05:04Vladimir Putin's not too happy, and I could probably go out on a limb and say that he
05:08is not going to be watching these games himself.