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Emmanuel Macron will be the only leader of the G7 at the opening ceremony of the Olympic Games

2021-07-20T16:13:46.178Z


While the Olympics could be canceled at any time due to the Covid-19 pandemic, Emmanuel Macron will take advantage of his visit


He wants to strengthen bilateral relations between France and Japan.

Emmanuel Macron is expected in Tokyo on Friday for a 36-hour visit during which he will attend the opening of the Summer Olympics and meet Japanese leaders, business leaders and representatives of the cultural world, announced Tuesday the 'Elysium.

The Head of State will be the only G7 leader to attend the opening ceremony of the Olympic Games on Friday as president of the host country for the next edition, scheduled for 2024.

“I'm going to Japan for the support and the relay,” explained Emmanuel Macron last Thursday on France 2 on the sidelines of the Tour de France. "To support Olympism" in the midst of the Covid-19 crisis, "the Japanese organization and French athletes" with the hope that "they will bring back as many medals as possible," he detailed. From the end of these Olympics, "the countdown" will be launched "to organize in the best conditions" the 2024 Olympics, he added, while Prime Minister Jean Castex could attend the closing ceremony August 8.

Accompanied by a delegation reduced to a minimum, with the presence of a single minister, that of National Education, Youth and Sports Jean-Michel Blanquer, Emmanuel Macron planned to meet with the president of the International Committee Olympic (IOC) Thomas Bach, and the French officials of the organizing committee for the 2024 Olympic Games, but also to attend judo and women's basketball 3 x 3, a new Olympic discipline.

This edition of the Olympic Games is marked by great uncertainty linked to the Covid-19 pandemic.

The head of the organizing committee Toshiro Muto even announced on Tuesday that a last minute cancellation was not excluded.

These Games will already be the first in Olympic history to be held without an audience at most venues.

Read alsoJO Tokyo: the day by day program of the events

Planned diplomatic visits

On the sidelines of the Olympics, the Head of State will attend a ceremony in the presence of Emperor Naruhito and will meet with Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga on Saturday, two years after his first visit to Japan in June 2019. They will discuss the situation in the Indo-Pacific zone, facing increasing maritime and military pressure from China, and economic attractiveness, while a meeting is planned with heads of commercial companies and new technologies.

Emmanuel Macron also intends to discuss the sensitive issue of conflicts between Japanese and French parents for child custody, illustrated by the hunger strike in Tokyo since July 10 by Vincent Fichot, a Frenchman living in Japan who has been unable to see his children since. their abduction by their Japanese mother in 2018. “These are tragic situations” in which “the French state stands alongside its fellow citizens in distress” and “seeks solutions with the Japanese authorities in the best interests of the children” , explains the Élysée. But "it is not for France to decide on social standards by Japan" even if "we encourage it" to launch a debate on this situation which affects nearly 100,000 people, adds the presidency,without indicating whether Emmanuel Macron will meet Vincent Fichot as he had done in 2019.

The Head of State will also meet with representatives of the cultural world (manga, video games, cinema, literature) to discuss “common projects” while the Japanese and the French share “a reciprocal fascination” for their culture. He will leave Tokyo on Saturday evening to make his first visit to French Polynesia.

Source: leparis

All sports articles on 2021-07-20

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