Polish foreign minister mocked on Twitter for saying he met representative of non-existent country

Poland's foreign minister was left red-faced after a mix up in naming certain countries. During a meeting in New York to lobby for a UN Security Council seat for his nation, Witold Waszczykowski said he met a minister of what turns out to be a fictional country.

Speaking to reporters on 11 January, Waszczykowski said he interacted with representatives from nearly 20 countries. His list included meetings with certain Caribbean nations "for the first time in the history of our diplomacy... such as Belize or San Escobar".

The problem was, no one has ever heard of a country called San Escobar. The minister's goof up immediately resulted in a session of Twitter mockery. This included the creation of accounts for the imaginary country complete with a flag.

Facebook users also jumped on board and created pages for the fake nation, posting photos and fake news of a Waszczykowski statue being set up there.

Responding to the incident, a spokeswoman for Poland's foreign ministry said it was a slip of the tongue and that the minister meant to refer to Saint Kitts and Nevis, a two-island Caribbean country known in Spanish as San Crisóbal y Nieves.

Waszczykowski himself credited the slip-up to exhaustion. "Unfortunately after 22 hours in planes and several connecting flights you can make a slip of the tongue," he said.

Check out some of the social media reactions below: