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    A look at some foreign envoys who nurtured ties with India

    Synopsis

    Many memorable figures, including a Nobel laureate, an economist, scholars and writers nurtured ties with India.

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    Blackwill’s term in India is considered a turning point in US-India strategic ties
    New Delhi, like all great capitals, has hosted a lot of envoys and diplomats. Many of them came at the zenith of illustrious careers. All of them worked to nurture India’s ties with their home countries.

    There have been many memorable figures, including a Nobel laureate, a renowned economist and many Indophiles, scholars, writers, politicians and career diplomats. Lately, some countries, including the US, Canada and Australia, have sent people of Indian origin to head their diplomatic office in India, with the view that they can better understand the nuances of a deeper relationship. A New Delhi posting is considered a meaty one among the diplomatic corps.

    “The nuances of the Indian government need to be understood carefully and Indian officials can never be talked down to,” a senior US diplomat told ET Magazine. Former Indian foreign minister Natwar Singh, however, says diplomatic officials have lost some of their muscle in recent years, with more and more high-level meetings taking place between global leaders.

    “Besides, technology has made the world smaller and heads of states can directly engage with foreign governments without depending so much on their diplomats,” says the former Congress minister and diplomat. But the diplomatic community in Delhi’s Chanakyapuri doesn’t see its role shrinking in any way. The times might be changing, but some envoys are remembered in New Delhi for their outsized influence on bilateral ties and for being an ally to India’s interests through difficult times. Here are some of them:

    John Kenneth Galbraith (1908-2006), Ambassador of US: 1961-63
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    In photo: US first lady Jacqueline Kennedy with John Kenneth Galbraith during her 1962 India tour

    John Kenneth Galbraith was already a famous economist and professor at Harvard and Princeton when he got the diplomatic posting. He had been in India earlier, too, to help shape the government’s five-year plans. His biggest challenge as ambassador was the Indo-China stand-off of 1962.

    While Galbraith had always supported India, it was his personal role in helping PM Jawaharlal Nehru secure US military support against China that is remembered fondly. Though not a career diplomat, Galbraith was close to president John F Kennedy. He was responsible for getting the first lady, Jacqueline Kennedy, to visit India.
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    Octavio Paz (1914-98), Ambassador of Mexico: 1962-68
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    He first came to India in 1951 as an attache in the Mexican embassy in Delhi. Paz became ambassador in 1962. The writer and poet, who won the Nobel Prize for literature in 1990, explored India through his literary works. In fact, long before multi-track diplomacy and peopleto-people links became popular concepts, he was a champion of soft power.

    He had the vision to see that the ties between India and Mexico would go well beyond strategic links and would cover economic and cultural areas. He left India in October 1968, resigning in protest against the Mexican government’s massacre of student demonstrators in Mexico City.
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    Robert D Blackwill (1939), Ambassador of US: 2001-03

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    Blackwill’s term in India is considered a turning point in US-India strategic ties

    The foreign policy expert Blackwill was a close aide of President George W Bush during his presidential campaign in 2000 and was rewarded with the Indian ambassador’s job. In the next couple of years, he set the stage for deeper US-India ties, which would culminate in the US–India Civil Nuclear Agreement of July 2005.

    Blackwill’s term in India is considered a turning point in US-India strategic ties; New Delhi was named an ally, in view of China’s growing power in the region. To walk the talk, the US lifted economic penalties against India in place since the 1998 nuclear tests, thanks to Blackwill’s efforts.
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    Alexander Mikhailovich Kadakin (1949-2017), Ambassador of Russia: 1999-2004 & 2009-17

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    An Indophile, Kadakin suffered a heart attack and died in Delhi in harness. He was posthumously honoured with the Padma Bhushan. He spoke Hindi fluently and had deep knowledge about Indian politics and society. Beginning his career in 1971 as a junior diplomat in the USSR embassy in Delhi, during the heyday of Indo-Soviet friendship, Kadakin later made India his second home.

    He had deep ties with prime ministers Indira Gandhi, Rajiv Gandhi, Atal Bihari Vajpayee and Narendra Modi. From the disintegration of the USSR to the annual India-Russia summit since 2000 and the Indo-Soviet Friendship and Cooperation Treaty, Kadakin was intrinsically linked with Indo-Russia relations. He called India his karma bhumi.
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    Frank G Wisner (1938), Ambassador of US: 1994-97

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    The son of a CIA official, Wisner also served as ambassador to Zambia, Egypt and the Philippines during his extensive career in the US State Department. He believed that a strong India was good for the US and has been a proponent of a transactional one-to-one relationship between the two countries.

    The career diplomat was also undersecretary of defence for policy, and undersecretary of state for international security affairs during his 36 years in the foreign service. He now works as an international affairs advisor at law firm Squire Patton Boggs in Washington, DC.
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    David Gore-Booth (1943-2004), High Commissioner of Britain: 1996-98
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    He followed in the footsteps of his father, Sir Paul Gore-Booth, who was the UK high commissioner to Delhi in 1960-65. After a high-profile diplomatic career of 34 years — including a stint as the ambassador to Saudi Arabia — Gore-Booth Jr was made the high commissioner in New Delhi.

    Though his stint here was marred by a controversy over the Queen’s visit and resulted in his falling out with the then foreign secretary Robin Cook, he is remembered as an outspoken diplomat. He won friends with his charm and intellect. Following the India assignment, he took early retirement from the diplomatic service, in 1999.
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    Clovis Maksoud (1926-2016), Ambassador of the Arab League: 1961-66
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    A Lebanese-American, he worked with US presidents John F Kennedy, Lyndon B Johnson, Jimmy Carter, Ronald Reagan and George H W Bush. He was an influential Arab diplomat in Delhi and a strong supporter of the Non-Aligned Movement during the Cold War between the US and USSR. He was close to prime ministers Jawaharlal Nehru and Indira Gandhi, who was seen as a bridge between India and the Arab world in that era.
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    Daniel P Moynihan (1927-2003), Ambassador of US: 1973-75
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    An ambassador under US presidents Richard Nixon and Gerald Ford, he arrived in India under the shadow of the Indo-Pak war of 1971, following which the relations between the nations were at a low. He was instrumental in the US’ giving India a huge loan waiver on the rupee deposits accumulated due to food aid to India.

    In fact, the $2.2 billion cheque that the US ambassador handed over to PM Indira Gandhi was touted as the single largest in human history. Besides his career as a diplomat, Moynihan was also the Democratic senator from the state of New York from 1977 till 2001.
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    Nikolay Mikhailovich Pegov (1908-1991), Ambassador of USSR: 1967-73

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    In photo: USSR ambassador Nikolay Pegov (centre) with Indian vice-president Gopal Swarup Pathak (right) in New Delhi.

    Pegov, who was an elected member of the central committee of the Communist Party of Soviet Union for many years, was considered a very influential ambassador. During the Cold War era, USSR was a powerful ally of India: prime minister Indira Gandhi visited USSR in 1967, 1970 and 1971. Pegov is remembered for his important role as ambassador when USSR supported India during the India-Pakistan war of 1971.
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    Amr Muhammad Moussa (1936), Ambassador of Egypt: 1983-86
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    The high-profile politician and diplomat also served as the secretary-general of the Arab League from 2001-2011. A very popular politician in Egypt, he was also minister of foreign affairs from 1991 to 2001. New Delhi was considered a plum posting for Egyptian diplomats as India and Egypt were founders of the Non-Aligned Movement. As ambassador, he played an important role in the summit conference of NAM heads of state in Delhi in 1983.
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    Escott Reid (1905-99), High Commissioner of Canada (1952-57)
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    High commissioner of Canada Escott Reid (centre) looks on as premier of China Chou En-Lai greets Indira Gandhi, daughter of prime minister Jawaharlal Nehru, at an event in New Delhi

    A scholar, diplomat and public figure, Reid is best remembered in India for his book Envoy to Nehru, in which he chronicled his friendship with the prime minister. Based on his dispatches as high commissioner, the book is a fascinating story of the special relationship the two countries shared.

    It also provides glimpses into many important personalities who shaped India. Reid joined the foreign service in 1939 and held important positions in Washington, DC, London, San Francisco and Ottawa. He has also helped shape the United Nations and NATO.
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    Humayun Khan (1932), High Commissioner of Pakistan: 1984-88
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    He started his career as a civil servant in Pakistan but moved to the foreign service in 1973. His tenure in India is considered a difficult one because Operation Blue Star, the military action against Sikh militants, was carried out in the Golden Temple complex in Amritsar in 1984, the year he became the high commissioner.

    It was followed by Operation Black Thunder in April 1986, to flush out the remaining militants. Though the militants reportedly had connections in Pakistan, Khan is remembered for maintaining stability in India-Pakistan relations during the difficult period. He returned to Pakistan as foreign secretary and was later appointed high commissioner in London. He has written extensively on India– Pakistan relations.
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    ( Originally published on Jul 21, 2018 )
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