JOIN USLoyal tea-drinkers nationwide must have been shocked to learn from Prime Minister Modi that there’s an international mafia conspiring against their favourite beverage. Indeed, many see this as an assault on India, no less than the recent conspiracy against idlis (I must confess that I quietly joined the enemy ranks on the issue of these bland sponge balls).
But let’s be under no illusions about the significance of the event. Sagacious scholars and scientists have been warning for ages that World War III would be fought over water. And India has decided to bring tea to the party.
One of the Ministry of External Affairs’ official twitter accounts tweeted a long thread as early as in 2019 about the importance of tea to India, including “some stats about how India takes its #tea seriously.” Not without significance, that tweet thread was posted on Valentine’s Day. The MEA had even made a short film about some “unique aspects” of tea from Darjeeling and Assam.
But India is not the only country whose diplomacy has taken to beverages with such passion. There is, in fact, quite a rich history of beverages finding themselves in the midst of landmark moments – helping to make or break deals, and bringing together friends and foes alike.
In 1972, when US President Richard Nixon and Chinese Premier Zhou Enlai came together at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing, one of the more prominent items on the dinner table was Moutai (or Maotai), a potent sorghum spirit which is widely considered China’s national liquor. Moutai was considered so powerfully intoxicating that the US Deputy National Security Adviser Alexander Haig had wired Beijing prior to the President’s arrival: “UNDER NO, REPEAT NO, CIRCUMSTANCES SHOULD THE PRESIDENT ACTUALLY DRINK FROM HIS GLASS IN RESPONSE TO BANQUET TOASTS.”
Yet, Nixon, with a solid reputation for hot temper and low tolerance, ignored the warning in the interest of normalising ties with the Chinese. And the rest, as they say, is history. Following the dinner, Secretary of State Henry Kissinger even remarked to the then Communist Party Chairman, Deng Xiaoping, “I think if we drink enough Moutai, we can solve anything.”
Beverages were also a hot-button issue in Europe’s more recent Brexit conundrum. As talks for a post-Brexit deal dragged on through the past year or so, Britons were busy hoarding their favourite champagnes from France to pre-empt looming import duties (indeed, even James Bond’s famous Bollinger champagne comes from France).
Britain’s dependence on French champagne is so deep-rooted – dating back some three centuries, according to some experts – that French champagne-makers were publicly confident that they held most of the chips. And they were right: When the two sides finally agreed on a last-minute deal on Christmas eve, goods trade was left tariff-free -- as champagne glasses clinked in the background.
Closer home, even India has not shied away from toting alcohol as a diplomatic tool. Back in 2013, when former New York attorney Preet Bharara went after an Indian diplomat, the Manmohan Singh government retaliated by, among other things, shutting down the duty-free alcohol store at the US embassy. It was a slight that did not go unnoticed by miffed American diplomats.
So, if beverage diplomacy is now a thing, India should take things to the next level. Perhaps the next Quad meeting should be graced by Indian tea, American coffee, Australian beer and Japanese saké. With India now in the UN Security Council, perhaps an International Tea Day is in order, as well, at the UN. And was it a mere coincidence that Canada’s foreign minister until this January was Monsieur Champagne?