Spare a thought for Prime Minister Anthony Albanese,who probably had to take down his “WELCOME JOE!” bunting from The Lodge.
The short encounter on the sidelines of the G20 came as relations between Washington and Moscow have plummeted over Russia’s war with Ukraine.
The lack of full consensus meant host nation India resorted to issuing a “chair’s summary”,which said:“Most members strongly condemned the war in Ukraine and stressed that it is causing immense human suffering and exacerbating existing fragilities in the global economy.”
In the same week the president of China was flattering Anthony Albanese,he was rebuking Justin Trudeau. Why the stark difference?
While tensions with China have grabbed headlines,ties with India have been improving at surprising speed.
Is everything fixed? Of course not. Even with patient and effective diplomacy,there will still be disagreements.
The Chinese president did his best to project power and stability in leaders’ summits this week,but in the end had to contend with a few contrarians.
After a breakthrough meeting at the G20 summit in Bali,is Australia’s China problem solved? Only superficially,and only for now.
The prime minister might have boycotted the G20 to snub Vladimir Putin;instead,it was the stage for his historic meeting with Xi Jinping.
Joe Biden nearly took a tumble and Russia’s representative left half way,but there was at least one notable achievement.
Poland’s President Andrzej Duda said that a stray missile that hit its territory was fired by Ukraine in an “unfortunate accident”.