{"id":56594,"date":"2023-02-20T12:18:51","date_gmt":"2023-02-20T20:18:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/?p=56594"},"modified":"2023-02-20T12:18:51","modified_gmt":"2023-02-20T20:18:51","slug":"third-statement-on-russias-war-on-ukraine-and-international-sport","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/?p=56594","title":{"rendered":"Third Statement on Russia\u2019s War on Ukraine and International Sport"},"content":{"rendered":"
02\/20\/2023 02:48 PM EST<\/div>\n

 <\/p>\n

\n

Office of the Spokesperson<\/p>\n

The text of the following statement was agreed upon by\u00a0the ministers of sport or their equivalent from the countries and individuals listed at the bottom of the statement.<\/em><\/p>\n

Begin text:<\/em><\/p>\n

Ministerial and senior representatives from our collective group of nations met on Friday 10 February. We were honored to be joined by President Zelenskyy, who outlined the ongoing devastation being inflicted on Ukraine, including its sports infrastructure and athletes, due to Russia\u2019s unprovoked and unjustifiable war of choice, facilitated by the Belarusian government.<\/p>\n

We reaffirmed\u00a0our nations\u2019 two previous collective statements of 8 March 2022 and 4 July 2022, and discussed the statement of the International Olympic Committee (IOC) of 25 January\u00a02023.<\/p>\n

We welcomed\u00a0the IOC\u2019s reaffirmation and reinforcement of their existing sanctions in place, and their statement committing to solidarity and\u00a0support for Ukrainian athletes and the Ukrainian Olympic Committee.<\/p>\n

While recognizing the autonomy of sports bodies, given the invasion of Ukraine and its devastation is ongoing, we agreed that the IOC\u2019s proposal on exploring a pathway back to competition for individual Russian and Belarusian athletes\u00a0raises\u00a0many questions and concerns.<\/p>\n

In its statement of 28 February 2022, the IOC recommended that Russian and Belarusian athletes not compete, in part because \u201cmany athletes from Ukraine are prevented from doing so because of the attack on their country.\u201d\u00a0Wherever\u00a0such an exclusion was not possible on short notice for organizational or legal reasons, the IOC recommended that Russian or Belarusian nationals should be accepted only as neutral athletes and that no national symbols, colors, flags or anthems should be displayed.<\/p>\n

We noted that the situation on the ground in Ukraine has only worsened since this statement. We firmly believe that, given there has been no change in the situation regarding the Russian aggression in Ukraine,\u00a0and\u00a0as an imperative for fairness and solidarity towards the Ukrainian athletes whose facilities have been destroyed and who have had to leave their country (or stay to fight for the defense of Ukraine in which very many have lost their lives), there is no\u00a0practical\u00a0reason to move away from the exclusion regime for Russian and Belarusian athletes set by the IOC in their statement of 28 February 2022.<\/p>\n

We also noted that through their choices, action and ongoing invasion Russia broke the Olympic Truce that has been\u00a0continuously supported by the United Nations General Assembly since 1993.<\/p>\n

In our collective statement of 4 July 2022,\u00a0in view of the non-discrimination principle, we recognized that Russian and Belarusian nationals could be allowed to compete as \u2018neutral\u2019 individuals, subject to conditions to ensure they are clearly not representing their states.<\/p>\n

However, in Russia and Belarus sport and politics are closely intertwined. We have strong concerns on how feasible it is for Russian and Belarusian Olympic athletes to compete as \u2018neutrals\u2019 \u2013 under the IOC\u2019s conditions of no identification with their country \u2013 when they are directly funded and supported by their states (unlike, for example, professional tennis players).<\/p>\n

The strong links and affiliations between Russian athletes and the Russian military are also of clear concern. Our collective approach throughout has therefore never been one of discrimination simply on the basis of nationality,\u00a0but these strong concerns need to be dealt with by the IOC.<\/p>\n

As long as\u00a0these fundamental issues and the substantial lack of clarity and concrete detail on a workable \u2018neutrality\u2019 model are not addressed, we do not agree that Russian and Belarusian athletes should be allowed back into competition. Noting the IOC\u2019s stated position that no final decisions have been made, we strongly urge the IOC to address the questions identified by all countries and reconsider its proposal accordingly. We also note that Russia and Belarus have it in their own hands to pave the way for their athletes\u2019 full return to the international sports community, namely by ending the war they started.<\/p>\n

Signed by the following ministers or their equivalents:<\/p>\n

Austria:\u00a0Vice-Chancellor Werner Kogler, Minister of Arts and Culture, Civil Service and Sport<\/p>\n

Belgium: Ben Weyts, Vice-Prime Minister and Minister for Animal Welfare, Brussels Periphery, Education and Sport of the Flemish Government. This signature commits the Flemish Community, the French-speaking Community and the German-speaking Community of Belgium<\/p>\n

Canada:\u00a0The Honourable Pascale St-Onge, Minister of Sport<\/p>\n

Croatia:\u00a0Dr. Nikolina Brnjac, Minister of Tourism and Sport<\/p>\n

Cyprus:\u00a0Prodromos Prodromou, Minister of Education, Sport and Youth<\/p>\n

Czech Republic: Vladim\u00edr Bala\u0161, Minister for Education, Youth and Sports;\u00a0Ond\u0159ej \u0160ebek, President of the National Sports Agency<\/p>\n

Denmark: Jakob Engel-Schmidt, Minister of Culture<\/p>\n

Estonia: Piret Hartman, Minister of Culture<\/p>\n

Finland: Petri Honkonen, Minister of Science and Culture<\/p>\n

France: Am\u00e9lie Oud\u00e9a-Cast\u00e9ra, Minister of Sports and the Olympic and Paralympic Games<\/p>\n

Germany: Mahmut \u00d6zdemir MP, Parliamentary State Secretary at the Federal Ministry of the Interior and Community<\/p>\n

Greece: Lefteris Avgenakis, Deputy Minister of Culture and Sport, Responsible for Sport<\/p>\n

Iceland: \u00c1smundur Einar Da\u00f0ason, Minister of Education and Children<\/p>\n

Ireland: Thomas Byrne, Minister of State for Sport and Physical Education<\/p>\n

Italy: Andrea Abodi, Minister for Sport and Youth<\/p>\n

Japan: H.E. NAGAOKA\u00a0Keiko, Minister of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology<\/p>\n

Republic of Korea: H.E. PARK\u00a0Bo Gyoon, Minister of Culture, Sports & Tourism<\/p>\n

Latvia: Anda \u010cak\u0161a, Minister of Education and Science<\/p>\n

Liechtenstein: H.E. Dominique Hasler, Minister of Foreign Affairs, Education and Sport<\/p>\n

Lithuania: Dr. Jurgita \u0160iug\u017edinien\u0117, Minister of Education, Science and Sport<\/p>\n

Luxembourg: Georges Engel, Minister of Sport<\/p>\n

Malta: Hon Clifton Grima, Minister for Education, Sport, Youth, Research and Innovation<\/p>\n

Netherlands: Conny Helder, Minister for Long-term Care and Sport<\/p>\n

New Zealand: Hon Grant Robertson, Minister for Sport and Recreation<\/p>\n

Norway: Anette Trettebergstuen, Minister of Culture and Equality<\/p>\n

Poland: Kamil Bortniczuk, Minister of Sport and Tourism<\/p>\n

Portugal: Jo\u00e3o Paulo Correia, Secretary of State for Youth and Sport<\/p>\n

Romania: Carol-Eduard Novak, Minister of Sports<\/p>\n

Slovakia: J\u00e1n Horeck\u00fd, Minister of Education, Science, Research and Sport of the Slovak Republic<\/p>\n

Slovenia: Matja\u017e Han, Minister of the Economy, Tourism and Sport<\/p>\n

Spain: Miquel Octavi Iceta i Llorens, Minister of Culture and Sport<\/p>\n

Sweden: Jakob Forssmed, Minister for Social Affairs and Public Health<\/p>\n

United Kingdom: The Rt Hon Lucy Frazer KC MP, Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport<\/p>\n

United States of America: Lee Satterfield, Assistant Secretary of State for Educational and Cultural Affairs<\/p>\n

End text.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

02\/20\/2023 02:48 PM EST   Office...<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-56594","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-world"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/56594","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=56594"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/56594\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":56595,"href":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/56594\/revisions\/56595"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=56594"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=56594"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=56594"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}