Awkward moment world leader appears to forget Albanese's name
He’s the new guy on the block when it comes to world leaders but it seems not everyone can remember Anthony Albanese’s name.
The prime minister left his Canadian counterpart tongue-tied when the pair met in front of cameras at the NATO summit in Madrid on Thursday.
After shaking hands in an awkward exchange, Justin Trudeau appeared to draw a blank when referencing the newly elected Australian leader.
“It’s a real pleasure to be meeting...” Mr Trudeau began before trailing off into stutters.
He managed to regain his composure to close out his remark with “...a great progressive leader”.
“We’re really, really excited to have a friend in Australia,” he added.
“Australia has been a long-time friend.”
The blunder continued when Mr Trudeau strangely referred to Mr Albanese as 'Tony'.
“We’ll be talking lots with, ah, with Tony and all our friends in Australia,” he said.
Before his flight to Paris, Mr Albanese described the meeting as “very successful”, and said Mr Trudeau had even invited him to Canada for a visit – a gesture he also returned.
As the video of the cringe-worthy exchange went viral, viewers on Facebook were quick to jump to the Canadian prime minister’s defence.
“Leave the poor guy alone, he has many other globalists names to remember,” one person said.
While another joked about Mr Albanese’s recent overseas work.
“Surprised they don’t know his name by now, the the guy is everywhere except Australia.”
The incident was a flashback for many to the time when US President Joe Biden forgot Scott Morrison’s name.
After Australia, the US and the UK made a new groundbreaking joint announcement on a new defence pact, Mr Biden referred to his Aussie colleague as “that fellow down under”.
While many social media users brushed it off as a “brain fart”, others suggested it was deliberate and an indication that the US wasn’t happy about the Australian government’s inaction on climate change.
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