Comments on: So Kevin, why didn’t you call?

By: Tom McL

Tom McL — Thu, 01 Jan 1970 10:00:00 +0000

… what worries me after Ramsey in SMH,China Inc has surely been flattering, duchessing, ingratiating all sides of politics here and it’s actually really starting to show and Japan are really not that stupid, even if they do lie about tuna quotas.

By: Jack Lynch

Jack Lynch — Thu, 01 Jan 1970 10:00:00 +0000

Patricia Watson is spot on. One would have thought that if not an election congratulatiory call, then certainly a friendly call to explain the Japanese definition of ‘whale reseach’. Historically protocol seems to have been treated somewhat superficially , and in self interest, by our big trading partner. There are no records whatsoever of flight plans being submitted by the Japanese forces for their liaison visit to Darwin back in the 1940s. Our American colleagues found the same for the Pearl Harbour visit. Surely we couldn’t be ‘played along’ by the sort of Asian strategy that has been practiced for millenia, could we? Send him an SMS Kev. Or if you want to be more formal have a diplomatic note dropped from an F-111. Do it before 2010 though because we won’t have the capability after then.

By: Tom McLoughlin

Tom McLoughlin — Thu, 01 Jan 1970 10:00:00 +0000

There is no doubt Rudd should be talking to Japan’s PM. It’s 4 fulls months Dec, Jan., Feb, March. Count ‘em. Even if they have been rude not calling, it’s way past that. Anyway did he talk to him or other Japanese ministers in Bali? Nike principle here.

By: Patricia Weston

Patricia Weston — Thu, 01 Jan 1970 10:00:00 +0000

My understanding of international protocol (and common courtesy?) is that heads of government make calls congratulating newly elected foreign heads of state, rather than that the latter call to introduce themselves. So whose lapse are we discussing here?