Richmond, United States: Three coaches were lined up outside the US State Department. Snacks and water had been loaded.
“Excellencies, could countries Afghanistan to Kazakhstan please board first?” chief of protocol Peter Selfridge politely asked.
Much like a school outing, an air of anticipation rippled through more than 60 ambassadors to the United States invited to join a unique programme aimed at showing off the country, as they were ticked off the list of those heading for a day out in Virgina.
Through its “Experience America” programme, the State Department aims to take ambassadors beyond the so-called Washington DC Beltway, which revolves mainly around politics, powerful lobbying groups and the White House.
Instead they get a flavour and feel for the rest of the vast, diverse nation. Past trips have taken in such cities as Seattle, San Francisco, Chicago and New Orleans.
It “serves the dual purpose of connecting the diplomatic corps with business leaders from all over the United States, while immersing them in the culture and history,” said Selfridge.
On this trip, the ambassadors toured the white, columned State Capitol building in Richmond, and got a lesson in democracy in the oldest legislature in the Western hemisphere.
Many African envoys, whose countries have been rocked by military coups, listened intently as they learnt how George Washington laid down his arms to become the nation’s first president.
“I was so interested when we went into the (Senate) chamber,” Niger’s ambassador Hassana Alidou told AFP.
“These were elected representatives of the people who work part-time. It’s an idea for us African countries. It’s a chance to show others that civic duty can be an opportunity to serve, rather than just a means of receiving” payment.
Later the visitors were treated to a lunch of locally made produce by Governor Terry McAuliffe at his elegant mansion, supping on such delicacies as Virginia oysters baked with ham, peanut soup and that very traditional Southern fare, chicken and biscuits.
The chicken must have been good. McAuliffe announced that “his old friend” Omani ambassador Hunaina Sultan Ahmed al-Mughairy was interested in buying “all the poultry that we can produce here in the Commonwealth of Virginia.”
Two other trade deals were also solidly on the table within just a few hours of arriving in the state.
Then it was off to Monticello, the Charlottesville home of former president Thomas Jefferson, and the nation’s first secretary of state, who penned the Declaration of Independence in 1776 coining its basic tenant that “all men are created equal.”
The Virginia jaunt was the 17th in the State Department’s series first launched under the previous administration of George W. Bush and which is funded solely through private partnerships.
While some envoys were interested in buying produce, infrastructure and know-how such as cybersecurity, or investigating educational exchanges, many others such as from Djbibouti, Lithuania and Bulgaria were eagerly hoping to find investors in their countries.
An executive from Dominion Power, the second largest US energy company, was peppered with questions at a business panel as to why it was not exporting Liquid Natural Gas (LNG) and helping to build LNG facilities in eastern European countries, desperate to break Russia’s stranglehold on energy supplies.
The programme is not just a chance to drum up business. For the ambassadors it’s also an opportunity to mingle with others from the diplomatic corps in a more relaxed setting far from interminable round of stuffy, formal dinners.
And some candidly admitted that travelling around America is at times a daunting and costly affair, eating into small budgets and involving vast distances and plenty of logistics.
“Experiences like this are very important,” Mongolia’s ambassador Bulgaa Altangerel told AFP.
His country is heavily dependant on agriculture, which also accounted for 16 per cent or $3 billion of Virginia’s $36.1 billion in exports in 2014. “It is very interesting to see how they are doing so well.”
The day trip was “very simple, very open and very frank, it makes us a lot closer” among the diplomatic community.
Uganda’s ambassador, Oliver Wonekha, was on her second trip with the “Experience America” programme.
She hopes to follow up on contacts made in Seattle last year when the diplomats were taken to Boeing and to the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.
“The foundation has some interesting health programmes which might be helpful. As for Boeing, we don’t have an airline, so it’s not for right now!” she laughed.
