Comment: Diplomats must engage in frank discussions with their colleagues

Under the leadership of President Obama, we have greatly expanded our engagement in Maldives. We have strengthened our security cooperation, and we have broadened our mutual efforts on climate change (including $3.5 million from our development agency, USAID). As a sign of this growing friendship, Farah Pandith, the first ever US Special Representative to Muslim Communities, visited the Maldives just last week, where she met ordinary citizens and government officials.

In the past few days, documents purportedly downloaded from US Defence Department computers have become the subject of reports in the media. I cannot vouch for the authenticity of any one of these documents. But I can say that the United States would deeply regret the disclosure of any information that was intended to be confidential. And we condemn it.

Diplomats must engage in frank discussions with their colleagues, and they must be assured that these discussions will remain private. Honest dialogue—within governments and between them—is part of the basic bargain of international relations; we couldn’t maintain peace, security, and international stability without it.