It's not me, it's you

Back-slapping bonhomie was always a feature when Australia's prime ministers met US presidents. To George W Bush, John Howard was the man of steel. After Bob Hawke met Ronald Reagan in 1983, an effusive Hawke wrote: "The President and Prime Minister were Ron and Bob."

- Bernard Lagan

But none topped the rapport between President Lyndon Johnson and the Australian prime minister Harold Holt who, before he vanished in the sea near Melbourne in 1967, told his wife of LBJ: "Wait until you meet him. I've never met a nicer, warmer, straighter or better fellow in my life."

It was therefore startling to many Australians last month when Donald Trump ghosted Anthony Albanese when the pair were to meet at the G7 leaders' meeting in Canada. Trump abruptly departed, citing escalating tensions in the Middle East as the reason he was required at home.

The Australian prime minister had spent months preparing for his first face-to-face with Trump and was under political pressure to pull it off - not least to save Australia's multibillion-dollar deal to buy used US nuclear submarines, a compact Trump has placed under review.