A beer-swilling, snorkel trip on the Great Barrier reef — the perfect get away for Kevin Rudd to teach the world’s two most powerful leaders a thing or two about how to get along.
A beer-swilling, snorkel trip on the Great Barrier reef — the perfect get away for Kevin Rudd to teach the world’s two most powerful leaders a thing or two about how to get along.
The sight of Mr Rudd, US president Barack Obama and China’s future leader Xi Jinping lounging about in their boardies, stubby in hand, would certainly be a break from the usually besuited diplomatic engagement, but it is precisely the idea put forward by an influential British columnist.
Timothy Garton Ash has praised Mr Rudd’s recent comments to the Munich Security Conference on the difficult balancing act in managing China’s rise in Asia.
‘‘Rudd calmly sketched both the huge growth in individual freedom and prosperity in China over the past 30 years, and the distance still to go before China can be described as a well-governed country under the rule of law,’’ he writes, endorsing the view that countries ‘‘need to shape global values together’’.
In what some might find cringe-worthy cliches about the Australian character, a tongue-in-cheek suggestion allows for . . . shall we say, trilateral dialogue.
‘‘Xi and Barack Obama should now plan to take a joint summer retreat on the coast of Australia, guided by Rudd, with a snorkelling trip to the Great Barrier Reef. Full-blown, Castlemaine XXXX mateship between Chinese and Americans may be too much to expect, but it is essential for them to open a frank, strategic conversation about global values and the foundations of international order.’’
As it happens, Mr Rudd had planned a ‘‘China Dialogue’’ of leading international affairs specialists and officials to be held the Gold Coast.
It was intended to be held next weekend, but has been postponed because of a calendar clash with some high-profile guests, including Henry Kissinger, who appeared along with Mr Rudd in Munich.
Mr Rudd — a Mandarin speaker who served as a diplomat in Beijing — has not always drawn praise for his approach to China.
When prime minister, he was criticised for a Defence blueprint seen to signal out China as a threat to Australia.
He was also criticised after US diplomatic cables leaked to WikiLeaks revealed he called China’s leaders ‘‘paranoid’’, ‘‘sub-rational and deeply emotional’’ in their response to the breakaway province Taiwan.
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