Gyeongju, South Korea: From a dinner with Donald Trump to a bump-in with Xi Jinping, Anthony Albanese has blitzed through summit season in Asia, dodging diplomatic curveballs and batting away questions about the fraught geopolitics swirling around him.

Critics may have a point about the ability of platforms such as the Asia-Pacific Economic Co-operation summit to deliver tangible outcomes, but in the soft power stakes, what price can you put on schmoozing a roomful of world leaders?

As the APEC leaders’ dialogue kicked off on Friday with a round of photos, Albanese rubbed shoulders with the Chinese president, engaging him in a “short, informal discussion” that proved good fodder for the prime minister’s Instagram.

Did they discuss Xi’s highly anticipated meeting a day earlier with Tr

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