Miliband: no abusive language from Lavrov
Published 17 September, 2008, 00:08
Edited 16 September, 2009, 08:15
British Foreign Secretary David Miliband has denied allegations in the British mass media that foul language was exchanged between him and his Russian counterpart Sergey Lavrov during a telephone conversation following t
According to The Telegraph “such was the repeated use of the f-word, it was difficult to draft a readable note of the conversation.”
An anonymous source leaked the information to the newspaper’s political editor Andrew Porter who subsequently posted the scandalous news on his blog, accusing Russia’s Foreign Minister of repeatedly using the f-word to his British counterpart. But the Foreign Secretary himself has denied this in a radio interview with the BBC.
“That is not quite true. I won’t say anymore, but it's not true that he [Sergey Lavrov] called me an effing so and so, that is not true,” said Miliband.
Sergey Lavrov had explained he only used the f-word when he quoted a characteristic of Georgia’s leader Mikhail Saakashvili as given by a European colleague who called Saakashvili a ‘f***ing lunatic’.
“In my conversation with Mr Miliband I was simply repeating word for word what a European colleague told me, to show the British minister that as well as those who think Mikhail Saakashvili is a great democrat there are other views about this man,” Lavrov said.
Some analysts in Britain rushed to suggest that the alleged spat meant relations between the countries’ two top diplomats may have broken down altogether – something that was, again, denied by David Miliband.
“I'll see Sergey Lavrov again in New York in September, the week after next at the UN General Assembly, and, I mean, the good thing about Sergey Lavrov is that he's not one of those people who uses diplomacy to cover up what he thinks and I think it's better to have the sort of exchange where we can actually argue because it actually means you respect each other,” he said.
Speaking of respect, Mr Miliband is seen by many in his own country as a Foreign Secretary who still has a lot to learn.
“He just looks young and inexperienced. Particularly against someone like Sergey Lavrov who is a veteran diplomat, who served in one of the toughest posts in the UN – it’s pure diplomacy work at its essence – and he’s known to be a very tough negotiator, very knowledgeable, he speaks many languages – so I can see that in a heated argument he might regard being lectured by David Miliband as something insulting,” said Richard Beeston, The Times diplomatic editor.
So could it be that this whole media frenzy was just an attempt to pour oil on the flames of the current sad relationship between Russia and Britain?
“These conversations are confidential – politicians leak their contents deliberately – in this case possibly to embarrass Sergey Lavrov. He didn’t seem very embarrassed by it, but maybe that was the intention,” Beeston said.
As for the author of the Telegraph blog – he refused to comment.
discuss it
