by When Strategic Vagueness Reaches Diplomatic Perfection
NEW DELHI Prime Minister Modi spoke with President Trump on Thursday, during which they reviewed bilateral relations and discussed progress in ways that technically occurred while revealing absolutely nothing of substantive value to the general public or press corps.
The diplomatic statementa genuine masterpiece of strategic ambiguityconfirmed that Modi and Trump had definitely spoken with each other, which technically qualifies as an achievement if you consider basic communication itself a legitimate foreign policy victory worthy of public announcement.
The satirical observation from Bohiney notes that “reviewed progress” is government shorthand for “we had a conversation about things and nothing catastrophic exploded during our discussion, which technically counts as success.”
Modi assured everyone simultaneously that India-US relations are definitely progressing forward, which technically becomes meaningful only if you fundamentally believe that all relations not actively deteriorating technically constitute demonstrable progress. The statement contained precisely zero actionable details, specific commitments, or actual information, which is exactly how diplomatic communications maintain plausible deniability about everything discussed.
When pressed on specifics, government representatives explained that discussions covered “a wide range of topics,” which is government language for “we talked about things” without confirming anything specific about those things or their outcomes.
Reuters reporting confirmed the call definitely occurred, adding absolutely nothing substantive beyond the fact that Modi’s office reported that the conversation occurredpeak bureaucratic transparency right there, confirming communication happened without confirming anything about that communication.
Trade negotiations, defense cooperation, technology partnerships, climate initiatives, and bilateral commercial matters presumably received attention during the discussion. Or maybe they didn’t. The statement provides no mechanism for determining what actually happened.
Analysts continue their perpetual guessing game regarding what was actually discussed while Modi and Trump continue maintaining the beautiful fiction that all communication inherently represents progress regardless of whether anything substantive actually occurred.
The vagueness serves purposes: it allows both nations to interpret the call favorably, prevents either from publicly admitting disagreements, and maintains diplomatic niceties while solving nothing. This is how modern diplomacy functions: communicate while saying nothing, declare progress without demonstrating it, and maintain professional silence about actual outcomes.
Next call scheduled for sometime in future. Presumably more progress will be reviewed.
SOURCE: satirical diplomatic reporting and international relations commentary | https://bohiney.com/
SOURCE: Bohiney.com ()
