German leader nixes Olympics boycott; open for talks with Dalai Lama

April 13, 08 by Ballz Sports

German Chancellor Angela Merkel on Saturday rejected the idea of boycotting the Beijing Olympics as ineffective, but said she was open to another meeting with the Dalai Lama despite China’s protests against her meeting the exiled Tibetan spiritual leader last year.

Merkel, in Oslo to attend the opening of the new national Opera House, said she would not attend the opening of the 2008 Summer Games in China because it had never been on her schedule.

"I do not think we should boycott the whole Olympics, we have seen that did not work," said Merkel, whose comments in German were translated into Norwegian by an interpreter. The chancellor said Western nations’ decision to stay away from the 1980 games in Moscow to protest the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan had little impact.

"And I never planned to participate in the opening," she said, adding that the minister of sports was designated to represent Germany in Beijing. She said countries needed to find other ways to discuss issues such as human rights and Tibet policy with China.

China harshly criticized Merkel for receiving the Dalai Lama at her chancellory in September. Beijing broke off several meetings with German diplomats, and more normal relations were restored only after several months of behind-the-scenes diplomacy.

Merkel stood by her decision to become the first German leader to receive the Dalai Lama, defending the visit as that of a foreign religious leader.

Merkel said she was ready to meet the Dalai Lama again, but was scheduled to be on a trip to LatinAmerica during the religious leader’s next planned visit to Germany.

Though she has not set plans to meet the Dalai Lama again, she said "if I met him one time, I would meet him again. It was not a once in a lifetime thing."

Merkel appeared with Norwegian Prime Minister Jens Stoltenberg at a brief news conference at the Munch Museum in Oslo, which the chancellor said she had asked to visit because she enjoys the work of the Norwegian painter Edvard Munch.

Stoltenberg and Merkel said they discussed ways to combat climate damaging emissions, their alliance through NATO, efforts to bring peace and order to Afghanistan and industrial cooperation during a meeting ahead of the museum visit.

Merkel is to return to Germany late Saturday, after the opening gala for the opera house.