Sergio Gor & India’s breach of diplomatic protocol

DIPLOMACY is changing worldwide. In India, the popular witticism that "diplomacy is 50 per cent protocol, 30 per cent alcohol and 20 per cent TN Kaul" is making way for different mores and etiquette. For those who haven't heard of TN Kaul, he was a former foreign secretary and ambassador to key foreign capitals like Moscow, Washington DC. He is very much a part of the Indian diplomatic folklore.

Whether changes in diplomacy worldwide are for the better or worse will only be conclusively established after Donald Trump leaves the White House and a new president is elected in 2028. What matters is whether his successor is from the "Make America Great Again" (MAGA) crowd or if he is a conventional Democrat.

India's most notable departure from established diplomatic protocol in recent memory was on October 11 when Prime Minister Narendra Modi received Sergio Gor, the US Ambassador-Designate to India. Most things about Gor's new job in New Delhi have been departures from convention. Leaving aside what has widely appeared in the Indian media so far, such as his young age for this assignment at 38 years and his glaring inexperience in diplomatic work, the US Senate never got its right to grill Gor before confirming him to the post. Using the Senate's archaic rules, Gor's nomination was among the 107 that were rushed through in one push as if it was a county poll and not any erudite examination of the candidate's ability to do the job at hand.

As the Narendra Modi government learned at great cost last week, matching such breach of convention and protocol on Capitol Hill, home to the US Congress, with a similar breach of protocol on Raisina Hill, the seat of power in New Delhi, can cause diplomatic turbulence on a global scale. This was a lesson that was deeply unnecessary.

If the Prime Minister had not received Gor in his office before he had relocated to New Delhi and presented credentials to President Draupadi Murmu as his new job demanded, the current confusion about India's oil purchases from Russia would not have occurred. It was from the Modi-Gor conversation that Trump concluded that India will stop buying Russian oil, as per the President's understanding of the conversation.

"He (Gor) reported to me that…," Trump stopped himself from completing the sentence in the White House Oval Office on October 15 about the meeting with Modi. A few minutes later, Trump unilaterally announced an end to India's oil purchases from Russia. Before the bombshell announcement, Trump asked Gor's permission to say so as a "breaking story." Gor was present in the Oval Office during the announcement. To put the record straight, Trump never said that he and Modi had a phone conversation where the assurance was conveyed to the President. Modi "assured me today (October 15) that they will not be buying oil from Russia," was what Trump said. It is clear from the full video of Trump's press conference that it was Gor who, rightly or wrongly, conveyed Modi's thoughts on this subject to the President. So, the entire brouhaha in India about a Modi-Trump phone call that did not take place is misplaced and based on the wrong premise.

Modi was ill-served by his advisers, who did not create a buffer between the Prime Minister and the incoming US Ambassador. They should have ring-fenced Modi against the possibility that with an unconventional occupant in the White House, exposing him to Gor could have unforeseeable consequences. The Prime Minister should be the last resort in such circumstances, not the first stop for an envoy-designate who has no clue of the mores and nuances in the conduct of diplomacy in India.

Being a superpower, the US tries to throw its weight around not only in India, but elsewhere too. India has mostly resisted such overreach. In 2000, a week before President Bill Clinton's visit, his administration told the Indian embassy in Washington that a planeload of marines, Clinton's advance security team, would be flying to India that afternoon. The embassy's Deputy Chief of Mission, TP Sreenivasan, solicitously asked if the Marines had all received their Indian visas in time. They had not even applied for visas. The caller haughtily told Sreenivasan that "US Marines don't travel on visas." The Deputy Chief of Mission stood his ground. "If the Marines don't have visas they don't go to India. Their aircraft will not be allowed to land in New Delhi." The Americans complied with the travel requirement.

Another occasion in recent memory when India broke protocol similar to the Gor instance was when US Ambassador-Designate Richard Celeste went to then Foreign Secretary K Raghunath's residence for a private dinner in November 1997 as soon as he arrived in New Delhi. Then-Prime Minister IK Gujral had met Clinton in New York two months earlier and invited the US President to visit India. Gujral was desperate to leave his imprint on foreign policy and he thought a US presidential visit after a gap of 19 years would aid Gujral's legacy. He encouraged the break in protocol and wanted Celeste to work on the Clinton visit immediately. Celeste was, however, not swayed. After presenting his credentials and calmly assessing the political realities, he advised Clinton not to travel India. With inputs from the US embassy in New Delhi and other sources, the Clinton administration concluded that the Gujral government was unstable. Gujral resigned as Prime Minister five months later.

It is not at all uncommon for Heads of Government to meet accredited ambassadors in their capitals, be it in India or elsewhere. But such meetings take place well after the envoy has been in the country long enough to be trusted and worthy of giving advice on the host country.

In December 1979, Prime Minister Charan Singh was singed when he sought a meeting with the Ambassador of another superpower. Singh insisted on giving a dressing down to the Soviet Ambassador for the "invasion of Kabul." But Yuli Vorontsov, the veteran envoy, cut the ground from under the Prime Minister's feet during the meeting. Vorontsov told Singh that he had already met Indira Gandhi, who would become Prime Minister in a few days and she showed an understanding of Moscow's position. In the end, protocol is a matter of discretion if the other side can be relied on to be judicious.