It was an innocent mistake, but one which caused external affairs minister S.M. Krishna embarrassment. Addressing the UN Security Council in New York on Friday, the minister inadvertently began reading from the wrong text and realised his error only after a few minutes into his speech.
Instead of reading from his prepared text, Mr Krishna read out from a copy of the previous speaker’s (Portuguese foreign minister Luis Amado) speech that was left behind on the podium.
Hardeep Singh Puri, the permanent representative of India to the United Nations in New York, detected the error soon after the minister had finished reading the initial few lines which contained references to the dignitaries present on the occasion, but by the time he could bring it to the notice of Mr Krishna the minister had read out a few more lines.
“On a more personal note, allow me to express my profound satisfaction regarding the happy coincidence of having two members of the Portuguese speaking countries Brazil and Portugal together here today,” Mr Krishna said, possibly thinking it fit because Brazil holds the current presidency of the Security Council. He also said, among other things, that the “European Union is also responding in this manner in coordination with the United Nations”.
For its part, the MEA has clarified that the initial parts of all formal addresses contain salutation and courteous references, and Mr Krishna used such expressions from the address of the previous speaker before moving to his prepared text for substantive remarks.
Mr Krishna was in New York for the debate in the UN Security Council on the issue of “Maintenance of International Peace and Security: Interdependence Between Security and Development.”