America diary: Foreigners’ hotels

Narendra Modi will be staying at the iconic Waldorf Astoria hotel during his visit to New York.

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Waldorf Astoria in New York.

While Narendra Modi will stay at the Waldorf Astoria hotel during his visit to New York, the fact that it is owned by a Chinese made US President Barack Obama break decades-long tradition and he booked a suite at New York Palace hotel. Chinese insurer Anbang had bought the 47-storeyed hotel last year for $1.95 billion. Americans are living with the prospect of foreign companies owning all their iconic hotels one day.

Take The Pierre, for instance. It is supposed to have the best location of them all, overlooking the famous Central Park. It’s owned by the Taj Group — if the Prime Minister’s Office was so worried about security as some newspaper reports made out, why did they not move into this Indian-owned hotel? Even Pakistanis own a hotel in Manhattan. The Roosevelt is owned by Pakistan International Airlines. But Pakistan Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif will also stay at the Waldorf. He and Modi are not on the same floor, but what are the chances that they might bump into each other in the lift?

Cartoon by E P Unny

Pope and a cabbie

New Yorkers don’t like the last week of September too much when hordes of foreigners invade it for the annual gig at the United Nations. This year, they are bracing for the worst as the Pope lands on Thursday to attend the UN Sustainable Development Summit. Local radio stations are warning of a security lockdown and a general traffic mess in Manhattan. “There’s the Pope, and then there’s the people coming to see the Pope — from everywhere,” said a New York cabbie, throwing his hands up. But he conceded that he should not complain too much as it’s good for the city’s business.

Frugal Francis

Pope Francis will not stay in a hotel, but at a town house, which is the Vatican Embassy. It is customary for Popes to stay in the diplomatic residences of the Vatican when they travel abroad. According to The New York Times, it will be a quiet stay without reception for the cardinals and no dinner spreads that were laid out when Pope Bendict XVI visited the country in 2008. Pope Francis has apparently requested for bananas in his room.

The long & short

Minister of External Affairs Sushma Swaraj knows that the Americans love a good one-liner. At the reception that preceded the Strategic and Commerical Dialogue in Washington, US Secretary of State John Kerry told the audience: “Sushma says she and I represent the long and short of diplomacy. And you’ll understand that, if you don’t know her well, later”. Kerry got a few laughs for that.

Paisa vasool

As far as India is concerned, the US visit is already a ‘paisa vasool’ with Joint Declaration on Combating Terrorism with the US at the end of the Strategic and Commercial Dialogue addressing all of India’s concerns vis-à-vis Pakistan, including Dawood Ibrahim.

Pak’s big O moment

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Following in the steps of Modi, Sharif has dropped the practice of having an entourage of journalists accompanying him on his trips abroad. So not many are covering his visit to the UN, preferring instead to come at the end of October, when Sharif will meet US President Barack Obama in Washington. That’s their big one.

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