SIDEBAR: Australia and Malaysia bury "recalcitrant" hatchet

By Sid Astbury Mar 3, 2011, 7:31 GMT

Sydney - Proof that Malaysia and Australia are now the best of friends came Thursday when Prime Minister Najib Razak and opposition Liberal Party leader Tony Abbott bandied about the once-loaded term 'recalcitrant' at a lunch in Canberra.

Remember 'recalcitrant'?: It was the jibe that then-Australian prime minister Paul Keating levelled at Mahathir Mohamad in December 1993 when the Malaysian leader refused to attend the summit of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) forum, hosted by the United States in Seattle.

The barb caused a diplomatic row that sparked talk in Kuala Lumpur of a trade embargo and a 'Buy Australian Last' campaign.

Keating eventually apologized, and threats of a boycott subsided.

On Thursday, Abbott declared at a lunch in Najib's honour, 'When it comes to the relationship with Malaysia, we stand united in our determination never, ever to be recalcitrant.'

In reply, Najib said: 'We will delete the word recalcitrant from our dictionary. None of us are recalcitrant; every one of us is very positive.'

Keating, who lost office in 1996, wrote in 2005 that he had emerged the winner in the 'recalcitrant' spat because a leaders summit went on to become part of APEC's architecture.

'In the end, I headed Mahathir off by getting Indonesian president Suharto's support' for the APEC leaders meeting in Seattle, Keating wrote.

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