| Up until now, the French president, Nicolas | | | | |
| Sarkozy, has remained pretty reticent about | | | | Commenting for the first time on those |
| whether he's planning to attend the opening | | | | protests, Sarkozy said that although the |
| ceremony of the Olympic games in Beijing in | | | | sight of the athletes and the torch being |
| August. But on Tuesday, he finally broke his | | | | whistled and jeered had saddened him, it was |
| silence and tentatively called on the Chinese | | | | normal in a democracy that people should be |
| authorities to reopen discussions with | | | | allowed to express their opinions. The |
| Tibet's exiled spiritual leader, the Dalai | | | | solidarity shown with the Dalai Lama and |
| Lama. | | | | Tibet was understandable and that was proof, |
| | | | as far as he was concerned, of the need to |
| "France will do everything to encourage such | | | | call on China to reopen discussions with the |
| talks," he said. " There are still several | | | | Dalai Lama to "find a political solution." |
| months to go (before the opening of the | | | | |
| games) and there's no time to lose.' | | | | While Sarkozy played down the impact Monday's |
| | | | demonstrations might have diplomatically and |
| "It'll be in light of the resumption of such | | | | above all economically on relations between |
| a dialogue that I'll decide what will be the | | | | Paris and Beijing, his sentiments were not |
| conditions for our participation." | | | | necessarily being shared elsewhere. |
| | | | |
| By explicitly linking his presence at the | | | | The French foreign minister, Bernard |
| ceremony with the reopening of talks, Sarkozy | | | | Kouchner, said the protests had made |
| has moved on from the only statement he had | | | | diplomatic relations between the two |
| made on the matter so far a couple of weeks | | | | countries a little more complicated. A |
| ago, when he said that "all options were | | | | somewhat extraordinary declaration for some |
| open." | | | | of Kouchner's critics, who view it as rather |
| | | | at odds with his track record as a man who |
| That's a slight change in rhetoric perhaps, | | | | has always been a firm supporter of Tibetan |
| but not exactly encouraging to those who have | | | | rights and counts himself as a friend of the |
| been urging a boycott in protest over China's | | | | Dalai Lama. Besides, who ever said diplomacy |
| security clampdown in Tibet. | | | | was easy? |
| | | | |
| Sarkozy remained silent over the weekend as | | | | There was also some anxiety from within the |
| his junior minister for human rights, Rama | | | | business community over potential fallout |
| Yade, said in a newspaper interview that the | | | | from Monday's incidents. French industrial |
| president had set three indispensable | | | | giants such as Airbus, Alstom and Areva all |
| "conditions" for Chinese authorities to meet | | | | have billion-euro contracts lined up with the |
| before he would confirm his attendance. Yade | | | | Chinese, but know that Beijing can always |
| later backtracked, maintaining she had been | | | | take its custom elsewhere. |
| misquoted. | | | | |
| | | | Sarkozy has given himself some breathing |
| And there was not a peep from his office at | | | | space, upped the ante just a tad and, without |
| the Elysée palace on Monday after | | | | promising anything, not excluded the |
| demonstrators cut short the journey of the | | | | possibility of boycotting the opening |
| Olympic flame as it chaotically passed | | | | ceremony. |
| through the streets of Paris. | | | | |