In Japan for G-8 Summit, Bush Defends Olympic Move

RUSUTSU, Japan – President Bush arrived on the lush and mountainous northern Japanese island of Hokkaido on Sunday to talk to world leaders about climate change, soaring oil and gas prices and aid to Africa. But first, he defended his decision to attend the opening ceremony of the Beijing Olympics next month – and got a little help from his host, Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda of Japan, who announced that he would also attend.

“I view the Olympics as an opportunity for me to cheer on our athletes,” Mr. Bush said, at a press conference in nearby Toyako, after the two leaders met privately. He said not going to the opening ceremony “would be an affront to the Chinese people” that might make it “more difficult to be able to speak frankly with the Chinese leadership.”

Human rights advocates have been urging a boycott of the Games, to protest China’s crackdown on anti-government protest in Tibet and its support for the regime in Sudan. Other world leaders, including Chancellor Angela Merkel of Germany and Prime Minister Gordon Brown of Britain, are skipping the opening ceremonies. But after meeting privately with Mr. Bush, Mr. Fukuda seemed to adopt the president’s reasoning.

“Olympics are sports events,” the prime minister said, adding, “I don’t think you have to really link Olympics with politics.”

Mr. Bush’s visit to this scenic hot springs resort, on the edge of a volcanic lake, marks his last meeting as president with the leaders of industrialized nations, the so-called Group of 8. The trip, which coincided with Mr. Bush’s 62nd birthday on Sunday, marks the beginning of the president’s exit from the world stage, and it comes as other nations are frustrated with the United States over the weak dollar, and rising oil and food prices, which are threatening the global economy.
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Mr. Bush also used the press conference to assuage Japanese concerns about his recent decision to remove North Korea from the list of state sponsors of terrorism – a move that has touched a raw nerve here because of the North’s abduction of Japanese citizens. Mr. Bush took the step in exchange for the North’s long-delayed declaration of its nuclear program to the outside world.

But the fate of the abductees, who disappeared in the 1970s and 1980s as part of an apparent effort by the North to train Japanese-speaking spies, is a very emotional issue here, and Japan has been using its role in the six-party talks with North Korea to press the North for the abductees return. The big fear here is that, now that the United States has removed the North from the group of countries that Mr. Bush once dubbed the ‘’axis of evil,” Japan will lose its leverage.

Mr. Bush, saying he was “aware of the sensitivity,” made Mr. Fukuda a promise. “The United States will not abandon you on this issue,” he said