Kerry expresses US regret to India over diplomat strip-search case

US Secretary of State John Kerry called a top Indian official to express regret about the case of an Indian diplomat strip-searched after her arrest in New York last week on charges including visa fraud, the State Department said on Wednesday.

Kerry’s call to Indian National Security Adviser Shivshankar Menon, disclosed by the US State Department, aimed to defuse a diplomatic crisis sparked by the December 12 arrest of Devyani Khobragade on charges of visa fraud and underpaying her family’s nanny, an Indian national.

India has been furious in its response to what it considers the degrading treatment of a senior diplomat by the United States, a country it sees as a close friend, and retaliated on Tuesday by removing security barriers at the US Embassy in New Delhi. The barriers would offer some protection against a suicide-bomb attack.

“As a father of two daughters about the same age as Devyani Khobragade, the secretary empathises with the sensitivities we are hearing from India about the events that unfolded after Ms Khobragade’s arrest,” State Department spokeswoman Marie Harf said in a written statement.

“In his conversation with National Security Advisor Menon, [Secretary Kerry] expressed his regret, as well as his concern that we not allow this unfortunate public issue to hurt our close and vital relationship with India,” Harf added.

An expression of regret, in the world of diplomacy, is generally viewed as something short of an outright apology. Harf said Kerry had used the word “regret” in his conversation with Menon, but she declined to elaborate on whether this constituted an apology or to offer greater detail on their discussion.