Xi, Modi and Putin Snub Obama, Stay At Chinese-Owned Waldorf Hotel

[Deleted]

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articl...-obama-snubbed

Xi, Putin Stay at Chinese-Owned Waldorf Obama Snubbed

Chinese President Xi Jinping leaves the White House, where he discussed the theft of commercial secrets, and heads to New York to check in tonight at the Waldorf Astoria, where his privacy is sure to be guaranteed by the hotel’s new Chinese owners.

On Sunday, Xi will be joined by Russia’s Vladimir Putin, who also picked the Waldorf for his first stay in Manhattan in a decade, according to diplomats preparing for the Eurasian leaders’ address to the annual seven-day session of the United Nations General Assembly.

The Hilton Worldwide Holdings Inc. sold the midtown hotel in 2014 to Beijing-based Anbang Insurance Group Ltd. for $1.95 billion. For now, the 42nd floor of Waldorf Towers still serves as the official residence for the U.S. ambassador to the UN.

While the Hilton will manage the property for the next century under the terms of its sale, Anbang’s ownership and call for a major renovation raised concerns about whether the Waldorf would remain a secure location for sensitive and classified government conversations, according to two U.S. officials, who asked not to be named citing sensitivity of the matter.

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Pakistan’s Nawaz Sharif are staying at the Waldorf, which is just a few blocks east of the UN campus.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel and Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff, whose personal phone calls have been spied on by the U.S. National Security Agency, instead chose lodgings farther north from Turtle Bay in east Midtown.

President Barack Obama and his entourage will relocate to South Korean-owned Lotte New York Palace Hotel for UNGA week.

[I Push Buttons]

How did they snub Obama? They stayed in the traditional hotel associated with envoys to the UN while Obama broke tradition and went to another hotel? If anything he snubbed them.

[Deleted]

How did they snub Obama? They stayed in the traditional hotel associated with envoys to the UN while Obama broke tradition and went to another hotel? If anything he snubbed them.

That's just the headline as it was on Bloomberg, I just copy pasted.

Still, interesting to see 3 groups when it comes to these hotel choices: Asia (Russia, India, China), The United States , and the "neutrals" who exiled themselves to Midtown (Germany, Brazil)

[Kaleredar]

So international politics assessments have regressed to a middle-school "who's-sitting-at-whose-lunchtable" affair now?

[Deleted]

I'm sure it was a coincident. I'm sure! Yeah, sure...

[Deleted]

So international politics assessments have regressed to a middle-school "who's-sitting-at-whose-lunchtable" affair now?

Always has been.

Doesnt change the fact that taxes are paid in US. And guess where some of that goes in to - US military.

Reminds me of my friend - somewhat anti-Westerner and deeply opposed to US as such...but guess what, lives and works in US.
Hilarious.

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[Rukh]

I don't get how this is a snub or something even worth writing an article about.

[Independent voter]

How did they snub Obama? They stayed in the traditional hotel associated with envoys to the UN while Obama broke tradition and went to another hotel? If anything he snubbed them.

Bloomberg leans toward the Republican side, Obama is a Democrat. I think that's all there is to this story.