There’s a lot of thought that goes into diplomatic gifting. But there are times when leaders find themselves being bestowed with an odd present — a giant komodo dragon, even a torture video
Prime Minister Narendra Modi caressing a horse which was presented by his Mongolian counterpart Chimed Saikhanbileg in Ulan Bator. PTI
Prime Minister Narendra Modi has concluded his three-day, three-nation European tour and has made his way home.
During his visit, a lot was said about the ‘invaluable’ gifts he presented to the leaders, which included a wall hanging, a Pashmina stole, a ‘Tree of Life’ made out of brass and a Meenakari bird figure made from silver.
The presents reflected India’s rich and diverse heritage and showcased distinctive traditions of its various regions.
Gift-giving between leaders has been a trend since prehistoric times — leaders across tribes and empires have exchanged land, money, cattle, brides, and precious stones to foster peace and good relationships. Today, that has progressed to iPads and expensive watches, but the motivation remains the same.
Here’s a look at some of the gifts that have raised eyebrows across the world.
A horse and fiddle
Narendra Modi as prime minister has received a bunch of gifts, but the ones he received in Mongolia during his 2015 visit would perhaps be the most interesting ones he ever got.
The prime minister was gifted a brown horse, Kanthaka, by his Mongolian counterpart Chimed Saikhanbileg.
Mongolia also gifted Modi with the morin khuur, the traditional fiddle.
Dutch overdrive
Narendra Modi may have the best ride ever, but the Dutch thought otherwise. During his 2017 visit to the Netherlands, its Prime Minister Mark Rutte gifted him with a bicycle.
The light-blue two-wheeler was a Dutch make Batavus bicycle is equipped with a dynamo to power the LED light fixed just above the front tyre.
We think it’s safe to say that the PM hasn’t used it since he came home.
Crocodile insurance
It’s not something one hears of everyday and former United States president Barack Obama was stunned when he received crocodile insurance during his 2011 Down Under visit.
It would’ve given Michelle Obama 50,000 Australian dollars if one attacked Obama
“I have to admit, when we reformed health care in America, crocodile insurance is one thing we left out,” Obama had then said.
A komodo dragon
Somehow, the leader of Indonesia decided that then US president George H W Bush needed most was a giant venomous flesh-eating lizard.
In 1990, Indonesia gifted Bush Senior with a komodo dragon named Naga. It’s pretty obvious but Naga didn’t roam the halls of the White House but was given to the Cincinnati Zoo, where it lived a busy and productive life (it fathered 32 baby Komodo dragons) before passing away in 2004.
File image of US secretary of state John Kerry holds Idaho potatoes as a gift for Russia’s Sergei Lavrov. AFP
Potato diplomacy
While wines and local delicacies are often gifted to world dignitaries, this one instance really took the cake, or should we say potato cake.
In January 2014, US secretary of state John Kerry presented his Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov with two Idaho potatoes as a gift during a meeting in Paris.
It was reported that Kerry had just spent the Christmas break skiing in Idaho and apparently Lavrov had mentioned the fame of Idaho potatoes. So Kerry brought two of them along to Paris to give to Lavrov.
They were, in Lavrov’s words, “impressive.”
A torture video
No one can call Iraq’s Saddam Hussein as not creative. The former president of Iraq once gave Donald Rumsfeld a video featuring the beheading of snakes and stabbing of puppies. Rumsfeld, then then United States’ special envoy to the Middle East, had later written in his memoirs about the 1983 gift, which was supposed to be proof of the barbarity of his then enemy, Syrian President Hafez al-Assad.
We can confidently say that it’s a present that no one ever wanted, ever.
Sperm whale’s tooth
What do you give one of the richest women alive is a question that all countries face when having to meet Britain’s Queen Elizabeth II.
However, Fiji has the answer. Every time she visits Fiji, the South Pacific island’s chiefs present her with a tabua, or sperm whale’s tooth, traditionally their society’s highest prized treasure.
The hands of Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Russia’s Sergei Lavrov rest on the ‘infamous’ red button. AFP
The ‘reset’ button
The US and Russia don’t have a very good relationship. Could it be because of the gifts that both sides have exchanged?
If potatoes wasn’t weird enough, then in 2009, then Secretary of State Hillary Clinton handed over to Russian foreign minister Sergei Lavrov a cartoonish red button with the word “reset” on it, which was intended to symbolize Washington’s will to draw the line under its past tensions with Moscow.
The only trouble was, whoever made the button didn’t know their Russian: they mistranslated “reset,” as “overloaded”.
We suspect the gift went straight in the Kremlin’s trash.
With inputs from agencies
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