Despite the chaos emerging after Israel’s withdrawal from the 2015 World Youth Sailing Championship in Langkawi, Youth and Sports Minister Khairy Jamaluddin believes that it will not affect Malaysia’s hosting of the event.
Israeli windsurfers Yoav Omer and Noy Drihan had their visas to enter Malaysia denied. As a result, they opted to withdraw from the competition.
But as far as Khairy Jamaluddin is concerned, a withdrawal from any country is deemed to be a normal issue in any international competition and it should’t affect the overall organization of the event.
“Today we saw how all are happy and pleased with Malaysia’s organisation of the tournament. Nothing was mentioned by the World Sailing representative to me on the issue because they know our policy,” said Khairy as quoted from Bernama.
“Our country’s principles are very clear. We do not exercise any diplomatic relationship with Israel and this issue was realized by all participants when Malaysia received the organizing rights of this event.”
The championship has been held for 44 years and the next edition hosted by Malaysia will run on January 3 and is expected to attract about 300 under-19 participants.
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