President Donald Trump was walking across the sun-splashed airport tarmac in Jerusalem with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in 2017 when the Israeli leader playfully warned his political ally about the confusing protocol he was about to encounter on his first visit to Israel as president.
"What is the protocol?" Trump asked his host, referring to the rules that govern how dignitaries interact. "You have any idea what it is?"
A smiling Netanyahu replied: "Who knows?"
Trump's next few weeks will serve as a master class in the finer points — and potential pitfalls — of protocol as he makes state visits to Japan and the United Kingdom, meeting with both Britain's Queen Elizabeth II and Japan's newly installed Emperor Naruhito. Plenty of world leaders get tripped up by the intricacies, and Trump himself has a spotty record in his diplomatic dealings on the world stage.
He pushed his way to the front of a pack of world leaders as they got into position for a photo at a NATO meeting in Brussels in 2017. He belittled Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau over Twitter after leaving a fractious meeting of the Group of Seven industrialized nations last year in Canada. And he arrived late to Windsor Castle when he met the queen for the first time last year. Her schedules are arranged so she doesn't have to wait for anyone.
For all of that, though, the president can't seem to get enough of pomp and pageantry. He raved about the reception he received in Asia in 2017, when China and other governments welcomed Trump by rolling out red carpets, staging military parades and putting on fancy dinners as he toured the region.
Trump's penchant for flattery is not lost on the Japanese, with Prime Minister Shinzo Abe going all-out to become perhaps Trump's closest friend among global leaders. The frills of a state visit, including meeting Naruhito and an imperial banquet, should bring out the best in Trump, said Michael Green, senior vice president for Asia and Japan chair at the Center for Strategic and International Studies.
"I think he'll be on really good behavior," Green said. "I think the Japanese knew very much what they were doing."
With nothing left to chance, diagrams have been drawn up to help Trump rehearse his movements at the Imperial Palace, where he and first lady Melania Trump will meet Naruhito on Monday.
Officials there say they aren't worried about any diplomatic blunders, noting that Trump's meeting two years ago with then-Emperor Akihito went smoothly.
Governments across the globe, including the United States, employ officials who ground themselves in the ins and outs of protocol, the rules that govern how leaders and dignitaries interact and comport themselves. But leaders don't always follow the instructions — for reasons as varied as a case of the nerves or sheer disregard of conventions.
Etiquette experts say protocol exists to provide structure and help put people at ease, and that those who disregard it send a signal that their own desires are more important than the feelings and expectations of others.
The White House never said why Trump was late to meet the queen. The press office did not respond to requests for comment on his preparation for the Japan and U.K. stops.
During a 2017 visit with Saudi Arabia's royal family, Trump and King Salman drank traditional Arabic coffee in small cups. Seeing that Trump held the cup with his left hand, taboo in the Muslim world, Salman instructed Trump that religious tradition dictates using the right hand. Trump then replied: "Always the right hand, right. Always the right hand."
Protocol has stumped other presidents and dignitaries, too.
In 1992, President George H.W. Bush slumped over and vomited in the lap of Japan's prime minister during a state banquet in Tokyo. Bush was in the midst of a lengthy tour of Asia and had become nauseous between courses of raw salmon and grilled beef.
In 2011, President Barack Obama was zinged for talking as "God Save the Queen" began to play during his toast to the queen during a Buckingham Palace banquet. The orchestra started playing the British national anthem before Obama had finished the toast, which caused a bit of a stir at the dinner. She did not appear to be offended.
During an earlier Obama visit to London in 2009, first lady Michelle Obama was criticized for putting an arm around the queen and wearing a sweater to their first encounter.
Mrs. Obama, a well-known hugger, wrote in her memoir that she and the queen had bonded at the Buckingham Palace reception over their uncomfortable shoes and achy feet when the queen laughed. "I then did what's instinctive to me anytime I feel connected to a new person ... I laid a hand affectionately across her shoulder," she said.
Royal protocol dictates that an individual wait for a sign from the queen or other family member that physical contact such as a handshake or an embrace is welcome. The former first lady said she tried not to let the ensuing media firestorm rattle her.
"If I hadn't done the proper thing at Buckingham Palace, I had at least done the human thing," Mrs. Obama wrote.
Associated Press writers Mari Yamaguchi in Tokyo, Jill Lawless in London, Aya Batrawy in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, and Josef Federman in Jerusalem contributed to this report.
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UNITED NATIONS (AP) — Russia on Wednesday vetoed a U.N. resolution sponsored by the United States and Japan calling on all nations to prevent a dangerous nuclear arms race in outer space, calling it “a dirty spectacle” that cherry picks weapons of mass destruction from all other weapons that should also be banned.
The vote in the 15-member Security Council was 13 in favor, Russia opposed and China abstaining.
The resolution would have called on all countries not to develop or deploy nuclear arms or other weapons of mass destruction in space, as banned under a 1967 international treaty that included the U.S. and Russia, and to agree to the need to verify compliance.
U.S. Ambassador Linda Thomas-Greenfield said after the vote that Russian President Vladimir Putin has said Moscow has no intention of deploying nuclear weapons in space.
“Today’s veto begs the question: Why? Why, if you are following the rules, would you not support a resolution that reaffirms them? What could you possibly be hiding,” she asked. “It’s baffling. And it’s a shame.”
Russia’s U.N. Ambassador Vassily Nebenzia dismissed the resolution as “absolutely absurd and politicized,” and said it didn’t go far enough in banning all types of weapons in space.
Russia and China proposed an amendment to the U.S.-Japan draft that would call on all countries, especially those with major space capabilities, “to prevent for all time the placement of weapons in outer space, and the threat of use of force in outer spaces.”
The vote was 7 countries in favor, 7 against, and one abstention and the amendment was defeated because it failed to get the minimum 9 “yes” votes required for adoption.
The U.S. opposed the amendment, and after the vote Nebenzia addressed the U.S. ambassador saying: “We want a ban on the placement of weapons of any kind in outer space, not just WMDs (weapons of mass destruction). But you don’t want that. And let me ask you that very same question. Why?”
He said much of the U.S. and Japan’s actions become clear “if we recall that the U.S. and their allies announced some time ago plans to place weapons … in outer space.”
Nebenzia accused the U.S. of blocking a Russian-Chinese proposal since 2008 for a treaty against putting weapons in outer space.
Thomas-Greenfield accused Russia of undermining global treaties to prevent the spread of nuclear weapons, irresponsibly invoking “dangerous nuclear rhetoric,” walking away from several of its arms control obligations, and refusing to engage “in substantive discussions around arms control or risk reduction.”
She called Wednesday’s vote “a real missed opportunity to rebuild much-needed trust in existing arms control obligations.”
Thomas-Greenfield’s announcement of the resolution on March 18 followed White House confirmation in February that Russia has obtained a “troubling” anti-satellite weapon capability, although such a weapon is not operational yet.
Putin declared later that Moscow has no intention of deploying nuclear weapons in space, claiming that the country has only developed space capabilities similar to those of the U.S.
Thomas-Greenfield said before the vote that the world is just beginning to understand “the catastrophic ramifications of a nuclear explosion in space.”
It could destroy “thousands of satellites operated by countries and companies around the world — and wipe out the vital communications, scientific, meteorological, agricultural, commercial, and national security services we all depend on,” she said.
The defeated draft resolution said “the prevention of an arms race in outer space would avert a grave danger for international peace and security.” It would have urged all countries carrying out activities in exploring and using outer space to comply with international law and the U.N. Charter.
The draft would have affirmed that countries that ratified the 1967 Outer Space Treaty must comply with their obligations not to put in orbit around the Earth “any objects” with weapons of mass destruction, or install them “on celestial bodies, or station such weapons in outer space.”
The treaty, ratified by some 114 countries, including the U.S. and Russia, prohibits the deployment of “nuclear weapons or any other kinds of weapons of mass destruction” in orbit or the stationing of “weapons in outer space in any other manner.”
The draft resolution emphasized “the necessity of further measures, including political commitments and legally binding instruments, with appropriate and effective provisions for verification, to prevent an arms race in outer space in all its aspects.”
It reiterated that the U.N. Conference on Disarmament, based in Geneva, has the primary responsibility to negotiate agreements on preventing an arms race in outer space.
The 65-nation body has achieved few results and has largely devolved into a venue for countries to voice criticism of others’ weapons programs or defend their own. The draft resolution would have urged the conference “to adopt and implement a balanced and comprehensive program of work.”
At the March council meeting where the U.S.-Japan initiative was launched, U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres warned that “geopolitical tensions and mistrust have escalated the risk of nuclear warfare to its highest point in decades.”
He said the movie “Oppenheimer” about Robert Oppenheimer, who directed the U.S. project during World War II that developed the atomic bomb, “brought the harsh reality of nuclear doomsday to vivid life for millions around the world.”
“Humanity cannot survive a sequel to Oppenheimer,” the U.N. chief said.
United States Ambassador and Representative to the United Nations Linda Thomas-Greenfield addresses members of the U.N. Security Council before voting during a meeting on Non-proliferation of nuclear weapons, Wednesday, April 24, 2024 at United Nations headquarters. (AP Photo/Eduardo Munoz Alvarez)
FILE - U.S. Ambassador to United Nations Linda Thomas-Greenfield speaks on Thursday, April 18, 2024, in Tokyo. The U.N. Security Council is set to vote Wednesday, April 24, 2024, on a resolution announced by Thomas-Greenfield, calling on all nations to prevent a dangerous nuclear arms race in outer space. It is likely to be vetoed by Russia. (AP Photo/Eugene Hoshiko, Pool, File)
