SYDNEY -- You can't win 'em all. Fast-jetting Australian Prime Minister John Howard discovered that on his latest barnstorming through East Asia.
In Beijing he was buoyed by the success of signing on to a feasibility study aimed at preceding a free trade agreement (FTA). In Tokyo he got the usual welcoming smiles but no deal on an FTA. And at the last stop, the Boao Forum in China, his goodwill speech got a raspberry from Malaysia.
Undaunted, he jetted off to Turkey this week to attend a dawn memorial service at Gallipoli, scene of a World War I battle where the Turks defeated an attempted British-Australian-New Zealand invasion. ANZAC Day, as it is remembered here, is Australia's collective memory of the real beginnings of nationhood. Hopefully, while in Istanbul, Howard learned a few lessons on how Turkey is laboriously negotiating to join the European Union.