Diplomatic communications are of ‘privileged’ nature: Nirupama Rao

NEW DELHI - Foreign Secretary Nirupama Rao has disapproved the leakage of U.S. diplomatic cables by the whistleblower website WikiLeaks, saying diplomatic communications are of a ‘privileged’ nature and should remain like that.

Speaking after the launch of the redesigned Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) and Public Diplomacy (PD) Division websites here on Friday, Rao said: “There was a civilisational system that ‘we would all prefer to see the world operate in’. All democracies and civilised societies operate on certain rules and regulations. There is privileged communication that a government enters into, lets say between an embassy and the headquarters. This is what was happening in the case of American leaked cables”

“So, there is a certain system that has prevailed and operated successfully for many decades. Even before we had electronic means, there were privileged communications. And they should stay that way. This should be the case until a few decades after which such information can be opened to scholars and journalists as part of non-classified archives,” she added. (ANI)