New Delhi: When asked if the Kremlin was receiving requests for meetings on the sidelines of the Beijing Olympics Games, Kremlin Spokesman Dmitry Peskov told the TASS news agency that Russian President Vladimir Putin does not plan to hold bilateral meetings with other leaders who will attend the opening ceremony on February 4.
"We have repeatedly said that the ceremony’s organizers have to impose a number of severe restrictions both on athletes and guests, including officials. So the Russian president’s schedule for the Beijing trip does not include any bilateral meetings for obvious reasons," Peskov was quoted by the TASS news agency.
In answer to a query on Putin's potential meetings with Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky, who was also due to attend the opening ceremony.
"However, I would like to reiterate that there are no bilateral meetings on President Putin’s schedule, except for full-scale talks with Chinese President Xi Jinping," Peskov said.
On February 4, Putin is likely to visit China.
Despite a diplomatic boycott by a number of nations, including the United States, at least 32 foreign heads of state, heads of government, members of the royal family, and leaders of international organisations will attend the opening ceremony of the Olympic Winter Games Beijing 2022.
According to the list issued by the Chinese Foreign Ministry, the invited heads of state, leaders of government, and members of the royal family include six from Europe, five from Central Asia, three from the Middle East, two from South America, and others from Asia, the Pacific, and Africa, Global Times reported.
The United States and a handful of other nations have launched a diplomatic boycott of the Beijing Winter Olympics in response to human rights violations in China's Xinjiang province. Meanwhile, human rights organisations and activists throughout the world have asked countries and leaders to boycott the Winter Olympics in protest of Beijing's human rights violations.
(With ANI Inputs)