Drunken U.N. diplomats wearing out U.S. welcome by doing booze-fueled business

The U.S. ambassador for management and reform at the United Nations says he’s sick and tired of dealing with drunken diplomats.

“There has always been a good and responsible tradition of a bit of alcohol improving a negotiation, but we’re not talking about a delegate having a nip at the bar,” said Joseph Torsella in a Newser report.

Negotiating rooms should be “inebriation-free zones,” he said.

Drunken delegates at budget meetings are apparently commonplace, unnamed insiders say in the Newser report. And among the worst offenders: African delegations, one Western diplomat claimed in the report.

Others see it as more a global problem, with delegates from all the nations hitting the bottle before — and during and after — important budget gatherings, Newser says, citing Foreign Policy reports.

“It’s not just Africans,” one Security Council diplomat said in the report. “The Russians do it. … Canada used to bring whiskey. The French used to bring bottles of wine.”