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Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi kicked off his five-day US visit on Thursday when he checked into New York’s iconic Waldorf Astoria hotel, which has come under a cloud recently following American concerns over snooping on leaders staying there.
The PM’s stay at the Waldorf-Astoria, then, is a bit of a surprise, given that the hotel was rejected by US President Barack Obama’ security detail over fears of spying or bugging given it new Chinese owners. Anbang Insurance, a Chinese firm, bought the ‘W’ for about $2bn from Hilton Worldwide in October 2014.
Fears of Chinese bugging and spying have gripped the US since several White House emails were allegedly accessed by Chinese hackers.
However, giving Modi company at the Waldorf will be his Pakistani counterpart Nawaz Sharif, Russian President Vladimir Putin, not to mention Chinese President Xi Jinping himself.
Waldorf-Astoria, the 1,232-room luxury hotel was built in 1893 by William Waldorf Astor. In 1931 it was shifted from its original site on 33rd Street to Park Avenue at 49th Street. According to a Bloomberg report, the spacious Presidential Suite, which starts at $1,999 a night, has over the years hosted a veritable Who’s Who of history, including Soviet Union’s Nikita Khrushchev and France’s Charles de Gaulle.
The iconic Manhattan hotel has housed US presidents and high-ranking State Department officials for decades, and is also the current residence of the US ambassador to the UN, according to an ibtimes.com report.
The suite features furniture donated by US presidents, including a wicker-backed rocking chair from John F. Kennedy and a wooden desk with carved eagle-claw feet from Dwight D. Eisenhower, the Bloomberg report added.
Traditionally the New York Palace hotel has been where Indian heads of government stay when they come for the annual United Nations General Assembly (UNGA). Last year, Modi and before him Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, had stayed there.
