US President Joe Biden received the most costly gift from a foreign leader in 2021 after his meeting with Vladimir Putin in Geneva in June that year. It was a unique Russian pen and desk set priced at $12,000 (Rs 9.9 lakh), as per the State Department's Office of the Chief of Protocol. The US President also gifted his Russian counterpart a pair of his signature aviator sunglasses as well as a crystal sculpture of the American bison, the country's official mammal.
The "Kholuy Lacquer Miniature Workshop Desk Writing Set and Pen" was one of the numerous gifts that Biden and other administration officials received that year, according to the government report released on Thursday. The 72-page report offers "insight into ways in which foreign leaders try to personalize diplomacy with the White House."
Mr Biden accepted the gift on the grounds that refusing to do so would be embarrassing for both Russia and the US. The expensive desk set has subsequently been transferred to the National Archives, as per the report.
On the other hand, Mr Biden received a $700 (approx Rs 57,000) US flag from Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky in September 2021.
In June 2021, Queen Elizabeth II gifted Mr Biden a silver-framed portrait of herself that was worth an estimated $2,200 (Rs 1.8 lakh). Later that month, former British Prime Minister Boris Johnson gifted the US President some wool blankets, mugs and a fountain pen set in addition to two dog bowls, probably for Mr Biden's dogs.
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The report also mentioned that the then-Afghan President Mohammed Ashraf Ghani and his wife gave Mr Biden and his wife Jill Biden silk carpets valued $28,800 (Rs 23 lakh) in late June, weeks before the US President ordered the withdrawal of all troops from Afghanistan.
According to federal law in the United States, the State Department must disclose any gifts worth more than $415 (approx Rs 34,000) that foreign dignitaries have presented to top officials.
