Diplomat Calls for End to Drunkenness During U.N. Negotiations

UNITED NATIONS — When the United Nations began renovating its Manhattan headquarters in 2009, one of the first casualties of the construction was the storied Delegate’s Lounge, where for decades the delicate work of diplomacy was aided by a good stiff drink.

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“My national response is there should be no drinking during business sessions.”
VITALY I. CHURKIN
Russian ambassador to the U.N.

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The loss of the bar led to protest from diplomats and their staffs, and a temporary outpost was soon established.

That bar is also now gone, but the thirst for liquor at the United Nations is apparently still strong.

This week, an American diplomat offered what he called a “modest proposal” that he hoped would speed along the United Nations’ notoriously protracted budgetary proceedings. He asked delegates to put a cork in it.

“The negotiation rooms should in future be an inebriation-free zone,” the diplomat, Joseph M. Torsella, said.

So far, there seems little chance the suggestion will lead to any change in behavior.

“This is roughly the equivalent of when you’re a teenager and your parents embarrass you because you got drunk the night before,” said Richard Gowan, an expert on the United Nations at New York University’s Center for International Cooperation. “I think there is a lot of snickering.”

Even as Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg has taken steps to curb the unhealthier appetites of New York City’s residents — whether they like it or not — the United Nations has stood a world apart. The headquarters is not subject to the city’s laws, and for years after smoking was banned all around the United Nations — first in city offices, then in bars and restaurants — delegates puffed away in the corridors and meeting rooms of the General Assembly building. Smoking was ultimately banned at the United Nations in 2008.

Despite the fact that the building continues to be torn apart as it is renovated, walking inside still feels like stepping back in time. The optimism and hope it symbolized as it rose after the wreckage of the Second World War are still evident, as is a certain sense that the mores of that era still apply when it comes to drinking.

“The U.N. has been cleaning itself up physically, but there is still a sort of residual 1950s, 1960s feel to the culture,” said Mr. Gowan, whose father was a diplomat. “You do sort of feel that you are sort of stuck in the past.”

It remains one of the few places where drinking in the style of a cast member of “Mad Men” is not only accepted but expected.

“As a breed, diplomats are heavy drinkers,” Mr. Gowan said, adding that though his father drank in moderation, he knew other diplomats who did not.

Pamela Vandyke-Price, writing in Diplomat magazine, said alcohol and diplomacy have been linked for centuries.

“After the Glorious Revolution of 1688, Whigs and Tories were distinguished by their drinks,” she said. “Claret, being a French wine, was associated with the cause of the Tories,” she said. The Whigs made drinking wine from Portugal infused with brandy — port — a sign of fealty.

The United States’ plea for sobriety was reported on the Web site of Foreign Policy magazine. The article cited anonymous diplomats saying that the most recent budget negotiations, which concluded in December, featured at least one delegate who became sick from too much alcohol.

Part of the problem might have been scheduling the budget negotiations just before Christmas.

“It is an absolutely miserable process negotiating at the U.N. anyway,” Mr. Gowan said. And with delegates rushing to get done before the holiday, it is made even worse.

But the battle over alcohol also highlights the bad blood between the smaller member states and the larger, more powerful countries.

The United States, Japan and western European countries provide the majority of the United Nations’ budget. And many of the dozens of countries that make up the committee that sets the budget have little financial stake in the negotiations, so partaking of alcohol may seem a good way to endure marathon sessions that can last well into the night. Another round of budget negotiations will be held this month.

In interviews on Thursday, diplomats from several countries declined to comment publicly. But privately, many had suggestions about what countries were the worst offenders.

Some said it was the Canadians and their whisky. Others said the Russians and their vodka. Or, perhaps, the French and their wine?

Mr. Torsella did not respond to a request for an interview, so it remains unknown if any specific alcohol-fueled episode compelled him to speak out.

The Russian ambassador to the United Nations, Vitaly I. Churkin, was playful when asked about the notion of a prohibition on drinking.

“My national response is there should be no drinking during business sessions,” he said. “After hours is a personal matter. We all have our private lives, don’t we?”