Anthony Albanese is often said to be performing a delicate diplomatic dance. But that’s usually just a figure of speech, referring to the difficulty of balancing Australia’s top security ally (the US) and top trading partner (China).
On Thursday, on the small island of Aitutaki, roughly halfway between Hawaii and New Zealand, Albanese ditched the metaphors and went straight for actual dance.
The Australian prime minister was filmed doing a little jig on the sidelines of crucial talks with Pacific leaders.
Members of the Pacific Islands Forum had flown from the island of Rarotonga to Aitutaki – both of which are in the Cook Islands – to thrash out a range of pressing issues, including the climate crisis, nuclear safety and the US-China rivalry.
More than 100 members of the Aitutaki community, including children lining the streets, had come to Orongo Park to welcome the leaders from across the Pacific.
One by one, each leader was called to the front to receive two gifts: a ‘tokere’ slit drum and a traditional ‘tivaevae’ quilt.
Maybe it was the fresh air, maybe it was the energetic drumbeat, or maybe it was the person presenting him with the gift who induced him to bust his moves?
In any case, while Albanese embraced the daggy dad spirit, he was by no means the only leader to break out into dance – it seemed to become a more frequent phenomenon in the second half of the roll call of leaders.
Albanese’s sunny disposition suggests the talks may, so far, be going smoother than he might have feared.
Heading in to this year’s Pacific Islands Forum, he had received public warnings that he was about to cop a bollocking over Australia’s continued reliance on fossil fuels.
Vanuatu’s climate change minister, Ralph Regenvanu, fired an early warning shot in an op-ed for Climate Change News late last week, saying his country was being further endangered by “Australia’s hypocritical gas expansion plans”.
There has also been agitation for the Pacific to set stronger pre-conditions to support Australia’s attempt to co-host the 2026 UN climate conference in partnership with the countries of the region.
But while it is clear Pacific island countries overwhelmingly want Australia to do much more, it seems their leaders are generally taking a pragmatic approach.
They see that a jointly hosted climate conference would help elevate the voices of the Pacific on the world stage and could only increase international pressure for Australia to shape up.
Earlier today in Rarotonga, Albanese insisted that he had received an “extremely positive reception” from Pacific leaders so far, in part because they recognised there had been a change for the better since last year’s election.
The prime minister said there would be more announcements the next day, probably including a top-up to the Green Climate Fund.
Tomorrow will also see Albanese and other Pacific leaders go out on a boat to hold more intimate talks without most of their officials. The prime minister of the Cook Islands, Mark Brown, promised his counterparts that they would be going to “the most beautiful lagoon in the Pacific”.
“We saw it on the plane but tomorrow we’re going to see it properly,” Brown said.
Tekura Bishop, the mayor of Aitutaki Island, said the people of his community were honoured to have leaders from across the region “coming to paradise”.
He described the lagoon as “heaven on Earth”.
Now that’s something to dance about.
