Meeting your interlocutor on any and every inch of common ground? Check. Macron’s willing use of fluent English was a key tactic here. Other than when answering French-language questions (when to have responded in English would have brought Macron yet more domestic grief), he adapted to the language of his hosts.

Recalling shared memories of happier, shared times? Check. It was smart to remind Trump of his time as a guest at the reopening of Notre Dame cathedral in Paris just a few months previously.

Gently correcting a friend in danger of veering too far from reality (here, regarding the extent and type of European aid to Ukraine) as you would expect from a true ally? Again, check.

These are the soft skills of diplomacy as communication between human beings to which Macron typically brings his heart, body and soul. On this occasion and on this criterion he outperformed even himself, and outclassed his host by some degree.

At times, Trump looked enraptured by this performance from such an interesting specimen of utter Europeanness. At others, the host fidgeted and listened stony-faced to the halting interpretation of Macron’s rapid-fire French. He tried a few gauche niceties of his own (“say hello to your beautiful wife”) and dialled up to the max his personal brand of touchy-feely diplomacy.

Behind the scenes

Beyond the memorable set pieces of diplomatic theatre lies, of course, the message itself. This must represent the voice, the interests and the concerns of the state or other diplomatic actor. But it may well go against the flow, disrupting the smooth surface of diplomatic pleasantries.

Continues…

For the full article by Professor Helen Drake visit the Conversation.

ENDS