Scott Morrison has confirmed Australian officials will not attend the Beijing Winter Olympics, joining the United States in a diplomatic boycott of next year’s games.

Morrison told reporters in Sydney it was “not surprising” given the deterioration in the diplomatic relationship between Canberra and Beijing that officials would not attend next year’s winter games.

Morrison said he would like to see longstanding tensions between Australia and  China resolved, but he said the government did not intend to “step back from the strong position we had standing up for Australia’s interest”.

Confirming the diplomatic boycott, Morrison raised human rights abuses in Xinjiang as one of the factors Australia had “consistently raised”.

Morrison said Australia remained open to dialogue with China “whether it’s their concerns with our foreign interference legislation or foreign investment rules”. But  Australia would continue to pursue policies in the national interest.

The New Zealand government said on Tuesday it would not send diplomatic representatives at a ministerial level to the Winter Olympics, citing “a range of factors but mostly to do with Covid”.

Source: The Guardian