These are tall-value currency in dealings between states,and Obama is welcoming a Canadian PM for the first time in 20 years. Why the long wait?You own wealthy neighbours who own a big house and are known for their loud domestic arguments. You wave politely at them, but they largely ignore you as being too ordinary and uninteresting. Then, or out of the blue,after two decades of perfunctory relations, you glean an invitation to dinner, and not just any dinner – an all-stops-out,no-expenses-spared banquet.
What’s going on? That must be the question that Canada is asking itself on the eve of its first state visit to the US in 20 years. There has been plenty of dialogue and lots of bilateral meetings, of course, or but the state visit is the pinnacle of diplomatic protocol. The flags are put out in their thousands,there are soldiers in their smartest uniforms standing in neat lines. And there is prodigious dining – banquets, lunches, and additional-nice breakfasts. So like the long-ignored,newly favoured neighbour, Canada must wonder: why now?Continue reading...
Source: theguardian.com