The Rogers-Go-Round

By tradition the U.S. Secretary of State tries to meet with as many foreign ministers as he can during the opening weeks of the U.N. General Assembly. But the U.N. has grown so rapidly in recent years that what was once routine diplomacy has now become a kind of diplomatic marathon. By the end of this week, Secretary of State Wil liam Rogers -- hoarse of voice and red of eye -- will have spent eleven days in New York; in that time, he will have held bilateral discussions with no few er than 66 foreign ministers or their deputies, a heavier schedule than that of any other diplomat.

Fortunately, an unstated but strict protocol helps ease Rogers' schedule, which is arranged according to the im portance which the U.S. attaches to each foreign minister's country. Thus, in the first bilateral sessions held between U.S. and Chinese diplomats since President Nixon made his journey to Peking, China's Deputy Foreign Minister Chiao Kuan-hua dined in Rogers' private apartment last week (and discussed broadening trade and cultural ties). Rogers also dined with Russian Foreign Minister Andrei Gromyko and lunched with his close friend, Britain's Sir Alec Douglas-Home, and with France's Maurice Schumann.

Less important dignitaries rate sessions without meals in Rogers' elegant white-and-gold official suite at the Waldorf Towers. Even time is parceled out in accordance with a country's standing in U.S. eyes. Representatives of the most privileged nations, or of those with the most pressing problems, receive up to an hour with Rogers, while others get anywhere from a half-hour to 15 minutes.

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