What happens when ambassadors are summoned by the host country?
37 comments
·August 26, 2025Beretta_Vexee
fortzi
Every French jew that I know has been dealing with direct antisemitism in France, sometimes violent. Your comment seems to downplay that.
yodsanklai
That's sounds like an exaggeration: most jewish people won't deal with any type of discrimination simply because they aren't identifiable as jewish.
Regardless, antisemitism exists in France and elsewhere. It's just not the case that France doesn't do anything about it. These crimes are punished. Maybe not as severely as one would hope, but by French standards, it's pretty serious.
But as parent comment mentioned, the current situation has little to do with that.
wredcoll
Yay, dueling anecdotes!
nsriv
Kushner's piece in the WSJ [1] makes the claim that the French government's recognition of Palestine and public statements "haranguing Israel" has uniquely exacerbated this and asserts October 7th is the genesis of this behavior, with no mention of the behavior that Israel is being "harangued" for, which your comment seems to downplay.
The letter is a clear attempt to bully an ally into US style speech suppression by using someone that has both official position and a personal Presidential imprimatur.
bambax
This Kushner is a convicted felon and a major crook. He only got where he is because his son married Trump's daughter, and then he got pardoned, and then he gave some money to Trump.
It's insane that anyone listens to what he has to say. He should just be slapped in the face and sent home.
aredox
Netanyahu is more than happy to visit again and again his friend Orban - who is at the same time plastering all of Hungary with ads railing against Soros.
Israel doesn't really care about antisemitism. It doesn't even care about "never again". They are openly doing the ethnic cleansing and deportation, and they are very proud that it is their turn to do so now.
ggm
Not to minimise modern French antisemitism, it has deep roots which transcend this immediate political crisis. I am sure you know this. Dreyfus wasn't an origin event, antisemitism had been rife in French culture for ages before. I stop at that point because there is at least some political continuity to turn of the 19th century politics, the downfall of the third Republic aside.
I see modern day French antisemitism as a bizarre union of right wing echt French, le pen-type and modern era Islamic migration from Francophone former French colonies. Former enemies united in a common hatred.
Beretta_Vexee
Let's not forget the strange mix of conspiracy theories, extreme right-wing views, and anti-colonialism, like Dieudonné.
s5300
[dead]
marcosdumay
Earlier this year, the US recalled their ambassador in Brazil and asked permission for the local government to nearly double the embassy's building size on the same week. (And kept both actions on the long term.)
Try to understand that.
Animats
No, the US didn't recall its ambassador to Brazil. The acting US ambassador there was summoned to the foreign ministry of Brazil. The US has some disagreements with Brazil (or, rather, Trump does, because they're putting a former national leader on trial). Here's a view from Rio.[1]
Recalling an ambassador to their home country (the traditional phrase is "recalled for consultations with their government") in modern times usually means they're being replaced.
[1] https://www.riotimesonline.com/lulas-brazil-at-a-crossroads-...
averageRoyalty
> The US has some disagreements with Brazil (or, rather, Trump does, because they're putting a former national leader on trial).
That seems an odd clarification. Do you not believe a democratically elected leader represents a country? Every country has people who disagree with their leaders views, however this clarification on every statement would get tiring quickly.
kergonath
To be fair, the reason of a lot of actions by American diplomats these days seems to be "because we can".
chasil
"(The U.S. ambassador to Switzerland virtually never gets summoned.)"
After the new 50% tariffs, I doubt this remains true.
Scoundreller
If they do, we’ll know that Americans have lost interest in Swiss banking.
mrangle
Swiss banking hasn't been legally feasible for Americans since the GWB era, famously and if memory serves. I'm pretty sure that it isn't offered to Americans.
whynotminot
I always enjoy reading about the theater of international diplomacy. In many ways — humorous and depressing — it’s not that different than the school yard.
rossant
Zelensky in the oval office last February certainly reminded me the school yard.
wredcoll
Was that the one where the reporters weren't allowed to criticize trump so they talked about zelensky's clothes instead.
myvoiceismypass
I believe the vice president did not think Zelensky gave enough thank-yous too at this meeting.
Animats
It is a formal statement by one country that they don't like what another country is doing.
It can be serious. Worst case, an ambassador is summoned to receive a declaration of war. That's happened many times in the past, especially when travel delays meant wars took a long time to start. That's rare today.
This time, it's not that serious. Here's the statement by the foreign ministry of France: [1]
France learned of the allegations of the US Ambassador, Mr. Charles Kushner, who, in a letter to the President of the Republic, expressed his concern about the rise in anti-Semitism in France and reported an alleged lack of sufficient action by the French authorities to confront it.
France firmly refutes these allegations. The rise in anti-Semitic acts in France since 7 October 2023 is a reality that we deplore and to which the French authorities are fully committed to combating, as such acts are intolerable.
The Ambassador’s allegations are unacceptable. They contravene international law, in particular the duty not to interfere in the internal affairs of States as provided for in the 1961 Vienna Convention that governs diplomatic relations. Furthermore, they fall short of the quality of the transatlantic relationship between France and the United States and the trust that should result between allies.
Ambassador Kushner will be summoned to the Quai d’Orsay on Monday, 25 August.
Charles Kushner (Jared Kushner's dad, Jared Kushner being Trump's son in law, married to Ivanka Trump) and the US embassy sent their chargé d'affaires (a temporary ambassador while the real one is unavailable) instead. That can be read in several ways. Although it's a mild diplomatic insult to send a substitute, the effect is to calm the situation a bit. It helps that the substitute is a professional diplomat, not a political appointee. Le Figaro says the meeting went reasonably well, but that's what's traditionally said unless a declaration of war results.
This should go away as an issue unless Trump starts screaming about it on social media.
[1] https://www.diplomatie.gouv.fr/en/country-files/united-state...
[2] https://www.lefigaro.fr/international/convocation-de-l-ambas...
myvoiceismypass
Forgot it was Kushner - what an evil, shit man! Tax evasion, illegal campaign donations and the cherry on top - tampering with a witness.
Said witness was his brother-in-law! Kushner hired a prosttitue to entrap him, filmed it and then showed his sister, how gross!
oaiey
US ambassadors are a disgrace right now. They do not behave like guests or communication bridges but actors influencing local politics. But that is not the purpose of the embassy concept.
As a world we have to return to normal and respectful behavior instead of bullying everywhere. The US under Trump is just one thing: a bully.
With great power comes great responsibility. That is the standard men (and women) are hold accountable.
andrewinardeer
Australia expelled the Iranian ambassador yesterday. Can anyone give an insights as to what happens during this processes?
I guess diplomatic relations are severed until an ambassador returns to the host country.
rwmj
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Persona_non_grata is relevant.
Animats
It's gone further now. Australia just severed diplomatic relations with Iran.[1]
[1] https://apnews.com/article/australia-iran-antisemitism-attac...
rwmj
These formal diplomatic notes are .. what? A piece of headed notepaper? An email? Some XML message validated with a schema?
Animats
PDF of the message on a diplomatic letterhead. 8.5x 11", 15 point type, 1 inch margins, seal of the State Department at the top of the first page.[1] The style is formal, but very plain and clear English.
Wars have started because of badly drafted or mishandled diplomatic notes. The Japanese diplomatic note announcing war was supposed to be delivered just before the attack on Pearl Harbor. The communications between the US and Saddam Hussein before the Kuwait war left Hussein with the incorrect impression that the US would not intervene if he invaded Kuwait.
ChrisArchitect
If not to represent their country in a foreign country, what do these ppl think the role of Ambassadors is?
People haven't watched The West Wing etc and it shows
MichaelZuo
Even the term itself is pretty misleading, as the answer notes, the vast majority of purported ‘summons’ are not actually made with the threat in writing that they will be punished if they don’t show up.
Those real summons are very rare.
pbiggar
Interesting the story that led to this question. France has said that it will recognize Palestine, and so the US ambassador wrote a letter falsely accusing the French of antisemitism for recognizing Palestine.
There is an element of theatre involved, but it is also a way of sending a very clear signal that the France is not satisfied with the ambassador's behaviour.
When everything is going well, meetings between the Foreign Office and ambassadors remain private.The fact that the ambassador did not attend the meeting himself but sent a subordinate is a public affront.
What is strange is that the US ambassador's communication is not really intended for the French or French jews, but is merely a sign of support for Israel.
There is currently an Israeli media offensive in France followin President Macron's comments on the recognition of a Palestinian state. The Israeli state and its supporters are buying advertising spots on YouTube and Instagram to encourage French Jews to do their ahria with free money.
There are regular attempts to exploit anti-Semitic crimes or news stories to claim that France is hell on earth for Jews and that Israel is there to save them. But then again, we haven't yet seen Belgian commandos coming to kidnap people in France or Luxembourgers launching rockets.
The only new thing is that the US ambassador is taking part in this type of operation and behaving like an arsehole with the French Foreign Office.