Diplomatic gifts gone awry: Awkward moments between world leaders

The interaction between diplomats can also reflect the position of countries. That is why they must be attentive to every move, from clothing to behavior and words. Gifts presented to a colleague are also one of them. But sometimes politicians deviate from the written rules and present unusual or unexpected gifts. For example, there have been cases where a Christian leader was given a symbol of Judaism, a US president was given crocodile insurance, and a late president received an “alarm clock.” This article will explore some of the strange gifts presented to leaders of various countries.

Half a Ton of Meat, Crocodile Insurance, and a Fake Mustache

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu presented US President Donald Trump with a gold pager at a meeting earlier this year. As you may recall, Israeli soldiers have detonated pagers belonging to Hezbollah members, killing or injuring them. Netanyahu was trying to allude to this incident with this gift.

“The pager symbolizes the Prime Minister’s determination to break Hezbollah’s spirit and create a turning point in the war,” said his adviser Dmitry Gendelman.

In the winter of 2013, Netanyahu surprised everyone by giving the Pope, a Christian, a seven-candle “menorah,” one of the main symbols of Judaism. Many viewed this as a disrespectful gesture that put the Pope in an awkward position.

Former US President Barack Obama also received a number of unusual gifts during his time. For example, former Argentine President Nestor Kirchner gave him almost half a ton of mutton. It is doubtful that this meat ever reached Obama’s table, of course.

The most unexpected gift to the former head of the White House was presented during his trip to Australia in 2011. The country’s Prime Minister, Julia Gillard, presented the American president with crocodile insurance at an official ceremony: if Obama was eaten by one of the predatory crocodiles living on the continent, his wife Michelle would have received an insurance payment of 50,000 Australian dollars. However, the insurance claim did not occur.

Netanyahu, who loves to put people in awkward situations, did the same with Obama: in 2013, Obama, who visited Tel Aviv, was presented with an artificial mustache. The prime minister believed that Obama needed a fake mustache so that no one would recognize him when he went to entertainment venues. But Obama, who does not like to go to such places, was not happy about this.

"Diplomatic Sloppiness": Merkel and Putin’s "Back and Forth"

Among world leaders, the relationship between Russian President Vladimir Putin and former German Chancellor Angela Merkel has often been in the spotlight. Putin, who always greets her with flowers, has sometimes “touched Merkel’s nerves.” For example, during Merkel’s first official visit to Moscow in 2006, the Russian President gave her a soft toy dog. This was not without reason: a few years earlier, Merkel had been injured by a stray dog during a bicycle trip, and since then she has been terribly afraid of dogs.

Merkel did not leave this unanswered. During a meeting in 2013, she presented Putin with an “alarm clock” with a picture of an eagle. Given Putin’s reputation for being late to international meetings, such a gift could have been perceived as a slur. But Putin said he liked it—and a year later, he was four hours late to a meeting with Merkel.

The Prime Minister’s "Unearned Joke"

Don’t believe the saying “it’s the thought that counts” when giving a gift. British Prime Minister Tony Blair, who believed this, once got into real trouble. In 2006, he gave US President George W. Bush a very cheap sweater for his birthday, which drew laughter. Bush tried to ease the awkwardness by saying he was pleased that Blair had chosen the gift himself. In response, Blair tried to joke and said that he had knitted the sweater himself. However, journalists called it a “bad joke,” since it was already known that the sweater cost 90 pounds.

This was just one of the unusual gifts that Bush received. For example, in 2009, he was presented with 130 kilograms of mutton by the president of Argentina, just like Obama.

January – Turkmenbashi: Renaming Months After the President

The Turkmen parliament somewhat outdid itself in offering unusual gifts. In 2002, the parliament changed the names of the months in honor of President Saparmurat Niyazov’s birthday. For example, January was renamed “Turkmenbashi”; April was renamed “Gurbansultan” after the president’s mother. September was also renamed “Ruhnama,” after a famous book authored by Niyazov. But four years later, in 2006, Niyazov died, and in 2008, by government decree, the old names of the months and days of the week were restored.

Saddam’s Strange Behavior: A Complaint to the US Representative About Syria

Saddam Hussein, who is often at the center of controversy and debate, also practiced unusual gift-giving. In 1983–1984, Donald Rumsfeld, the US special envoy to the Middle East, met with Saddam Hussein several times during the Iran-Iraq War. During these meetings, Rumsfeld gave Saddam several strange gifts. Among them were a spiked hammer and gold cowboy boots.

But Saddam’s gift in return was even stranger: he gave the US envoy a video. The video, which is still available on Rumsfeld’s personal website, shows female soldiers biting off the heads of live snakes and male soldiers killing a dog. The film shows all of this being done with the permission of then-Syrian dictator Hafez al-Assad. The video was intended to show the brutality of the Syrian regime.