Modi's £16,129 diamond tops Jill Biden's gift list for 2023

A DIAMOND worth £16,129, gifted by Indian prime minister Narendra Modi to US First Lady Jill Biden, was the most expensive gift received by the Biden family from a foreign leader in 2023, according to the US State Department.

The 7.5-carat lab-grown diamond was presented during a private dinner at the White House in June 2023, as part of Modi's state visit at the invitation of US president Joe Biden.

Modi also gifted president Biden a carved sandalwood box, a book titled The Ten Principal Upanishads, a statue, and an oil lamp, with a combined value of approximately £5,029.

The diamond, however, remains with the First Lady "for official use in the East Wing," according to the US State Department's annual gift disclosure published Thursday.

Smit Patel, convenor of the Gem & Jewellery Export Promotion Council, said the diamond was created using technology that mimics the natural process of diamond formation.

"This 7.5-carat diamond represents 75 years of India's Independence and was created using green energy, reflecting India's focus on renewable energy under PM Modi," Patel said in 2023.

Other gifts Modi presented during his visit included a wall hanging worth £685 for Kurt Campbell, the US coordinator for Indo-Pacific affairs, and camel bone and jali work boxes valued at £101 each for US Senators Mitch McConnell and Charles Schumer, respectively.

The second-costliest gift to the First Lady in 2023 was a steel fragment brooch worth £11,343, presented by Oksana Markarova, Ukraine's ambassador to the US, in July.

Additional gifts reported

The US president also received high-value gifts, including a photo album worth £5,726 from South Korea's president Suk Yeol Yoon, a £2,661 silver bowl from the Sultan of Brunei, and a collage valued at £1,935 from Ukraine's president Volodymyr Zelenskyy.

US law requires gifts exceeding £387 to be declared. Most CIA officials who received luxury items, including jewellery and watches, reported destroying them as per protocol. The combined value of such destroyed gifts exceeded £1,06,452.

CIA director William Burns received a telescope worth £14,516, now transferred to the General Services Administration, while destroying an £8,871 Omega watch.

Other CIA employees reported receiving jewellery and watches valued at tens of thousands of pounds, all of which were destroyed, the report said.

(With inputs from agencies)