U.S. President Barack Obama for the first time joined in his administration's diplomatic repair work in the wake of the disclosure of numerous U.S. cables by WikiLeaks, calling the leaders of Turkey and Mexico on Saturday in an effort to smooth things over.
Separate White House statements about the phone calls did not characterise Mr. Obama's messages as apologies, nor would administration officials.
The statement about Mr. Obama's call to President Felipe Calderon of Mexico began by describing it as congratulatory, to praise Mexico for its work in acting as host to the just-completed Cancun conference on climate change.
But the two Presidents also talked about “the deplorable actions by WikiLeaks,” the statement said, “and agreed its irresponsible acts should not distract our two countries from our important cooperation.”
Mr. Obama also called the Turkish Prime Minister, Recep Tayyip Erdogan. He “expressed his regrets for the deplorable action by WikiLeaks and the two leaders agreed that it will not influence or disrupt the close cooperation between the United States and Turkey.”
Overall, the WikiLeaks disclosures of diplomatic reports have been more embarrassing than revelatory or harmful, officials and analysts say.
Nonetheless, those cables dealing with Turkey, an ally straddling the West and the volatile West Asia, and Mexico, a troubled neighbour battling a corrosive drug war, illustrate the diplomatic problems created by exposing even routine communications to international light.
Publicised cables about Turkey, a member of NATO, depicted doubts about how reliable an ally the country was, given its mildly Islamist and anti-Israel government. But Mr. Obama and Mr. Erdogan “discussed the enduring importance of the U.S.-Turkish partnership and affirmed their commitment to work together on a broad range of issues,” said the White House.
As for Mexico, U.S. diplomats in the leaked cables quoted officials there admitting pessimism about the nation's war on drug lords even as the government publicly had boasted of progress, while other cables conveyed Americans' criticisms of the Mexican military, police and judiciary and of public corruption in the country generally.
But, according to the White House, Mr. Obama and Mr. Calderon “reaffirmed their shared commitment to work together against transnational criminal organisations, to enhance border cooperation, and to improve the economic well-being of people in both countries.” — New York Times News Service
