2022 Olympics: UN chief, senior officials arrive Beijing

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has arrived at Beijing for the opening ceremony of the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics.

“He will also meet with the President of the International Olympic Committee, Thomas Bach, and Chinese authorities,” the Deputy Spokesperson for the Secretary-General, Farhan Haq told journalists at UN headquarters in New York on Thursday.

Similarly, President of UN General Assembly, Abdulla Shahid, has arrived in Beijing to attend the Olympic games, according to his spokesperson, Ms Paulina Greer.

“The President flew on the same flight from Seoul, as Secretary-General António Guterres and WHO’s Dr Tedros Ghebreyesus.”

“President Shahid’s programme will start on Friday morning local time, when he will travel to the Olympic Forest Park for the torch relay,” Greer told journalists at UN headquarters.

Also, Ghebreyesus arrived at Beijing on Thursday for the opening ceremony of the Olympics, his second visit to China since the COVID-19 outbreak began in late 2019 and early 2020, according to reports.

The chief of the WHO posted a picture of stepping off a plane on Twitter on Thursday, saying that alongside UN Secretary-General and other leaders, he came to join the opening of the Games which is scheduled on Friday night.

“The Games are the symbol of hope, unity, solidarity and peace. Those values are needed more than ever as we fight COVID-19 together,” he said.

Ghebreyesus visited China in January 2020 during the early stage of the outbreak and met with Chinese President Xi Jinping to share the latest information related to the outbreak and reiterated his organisation’s commitment to bring it under control.

Over the past two years, China and the WHO have been working closely in sharing information, providing experiences, origins-tracing studies, supporting vaccinations among other areas of collaboration.

WHO’s participation in the event is for close collaboration between it and the International Olympic Committee, formalised in a memorandum of understanding to advocate healthy lifestyles through sport, signed on May 16, 2020.

The WHO chief also participated in the 2021 Summer Olympics held in Tokyo. He will be following the official protocols as set out by the host government, according to the spokesperson.