With just six days to go before the opening ceremony of the Milano Cortina 2026 Winter Olympics, tensions continue to simmer across different parts of the globe. Amid it all, the President of the United Nations General Assembly issued a solemn appeal, invoking a long-standing tradition tied to the idea of peace during the Games.

“I solemnly appeal to all Member States to demonstrate their commitment to the Olympic Truce for the Milano Cortina 2026 Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games, and to undertake concrete actions at the local, national, regional and world levels to promote and strengthen a culture of peace and harmony based on the spirit of the Truce,” said UNGA president Annalena Baerbock.

This ancient tradition known as the Olympic Truce or Ekecheiria, began in Ancient Greece. During this period, wars and conflicts were paused so that athletes, officials, and spectators could travel safely to and from the Olympic Games. Today, the tradition is revived by the International Olympic Committee (IOC) and supported by the United Nations.

Although it is mostly symbolic, the Truce promotes peace, dialogue and safe engagement, although it does not necessarily prevent conflicts. The truce was also observed when the 2022 Winter Olympics were held in Beijing and the 2024 Summer Olympics in Paris.

For Milano Cortina 2026 the Truce was formally adopted on 19 November 2025 by the 80th Session of the UN General Assembly in New York. It urges the Member States to pay attention to the Truce seven days prior to the Opening Ceremony (6 February 2026) to seven days following the end of the Paralympic Winter Games.

In practice, the Truce period officially began on 30 January 2026 as a start of a symbolic pause in conflict and a focus on the safety and well-being of athletes and officials. Interestingly, just a few days before, Milan Mayor Giuseppe Sala also made headlines with a strong stance on athlete safety.

Italian Mayor focuses on athlete protection, not enforcement

The United States planned to include agents from U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), specifically from the Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) unit, in a security support role for the 2026 Milano‑Cortina Winter Olympics. These agents were meant to assist the U.S. Department of State’s Diplomatic Security Service by helping to assess and reduce risks linked to transnational criminal threats only

Italian authorities, however, made it clear that ICE agents would not be permitted to act outside of the U.S. diplomatic missions like the U.S. consulate in Milan, but all security on Italian territory would be under the jurisdiction of the Italians, as is customary with international events.

The proposal was controversial, with a prominent rejection by the Mayor of Milan, Giuseppe Sala. Sala claimed that these kinds of agents were “not welcome in Milan” during the Olympics, citing his safety concerns as well as the controversial immigration enforcement activities of the agency, such as recent fatalities in Minneapolis that have led to protests.

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Although both the International Olympic Committee (IOC) and leaders of Italian cities insist on the necessity to provide safety to athletes and officials, the two sides have different views of how this can be done. The IOC also concentrates on the coordinated security of events and risk reduction alongside its host countries.

Conversely, the mayor of Milan demanded that local jurisdiction and human right safeguarding should form the core of the safety planning and opposed the use of foreign enforcers.