■ Anthony Albanese signals to China that Australia is open for dialogue without ‘preconditions.’
Anthony Albanese said he “didn’t miss” during a discussion with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov at the ASEAN meetings.
“I didn’t miss him,” Mr Albanese said.
“I pointed out that Russia’s actions were causing an enormous human toll, that it was an illegal invasion that was having an impact on the people of Ukraine.
“But also it was a breach of the international rule of law and was having economic consequences by raising inflation through energy prices throughout the world.”
Very peculiar (US-scripted) contrast in priorities here for a nation whose citizens are being told to prepare for war with China any day. The Prime Minister brags about tough talk with a Russian but is reportedly still waiting by the phone, desperate for a date with Xi Jinping. Not only that but Mr Albanese has telegraphed his weakness and inferiority by guaranteeing that he won’t say anything to hurt the feelings of the Chinese President. In a nutshell, Johannes Leak.
US is far more anti China than Australia. Both sides of politics are looking for ways to limit China. Australia has always been in the Howard configuration of trying to separate trade from security alliances. As for Putin, he seems to be very short of friends anywhere. Even now RT folk are raising their doubts. He and Trump can retire together in Riyadh.
The MSM were all over the possible meeting with Xi, click bait headlines everywhere.
He had 2 minutes with Premier Li, with translators. Very in-depth.
Leak has him spot on.
And just like that, the heaps of stories about the possible meeting with XI have just disappeared. Like it was never really important. Like their PM was still important on the world stage.
Like he actually mattered.
Just who is talking about war with China.
We did not have the utter embarrassment of shirtfronting
Non Mentis
“I didn’t miss him” sounds a lot more aggressive than “shirtfronting”.
Anyone who actually passed pre-school would understand that.
“We did not have the utter embarrassment of shirtfronting”
Ah yes the shirtfronting, the good old days when talking tough to Putin was bad.
Russia is not much of a customer, they only buy a few dead ‘Roos every year. China buys LOTS of our resources and pays for them by sending immigrants.
Neither anyone in Russia, nor most of the people in Australia care what Anthony Albanese thinks or says.
Sergey Lavrov no doubt figured out in the first 30 seconds that it was pointless to bring him up to speed with the background of what’s going on.
The US talks about a “rules based order” where they get to make the rules, like a vote for independence in Kosovo … then they get to change the rules when the people in Crimea vote for independence from Kyiv. Try asking Albanese to explain it … how far would he get before confusion sets it?