Keating toes Labor line before China meeting government doesn’t want

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The government was not totally blindsided by the meeting request before it was made public on Monday. Mr Keating revealed Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet officials had contacted him “offering to facilitate the meeting and to make appropriate arrangements”. “As a matter of courtesy, let alone anything else, I was happy to advise the Chinese foreign ministry that, given I had the time, I would be pleased to sit down and discuss international matters with the foreign minister,” Mr Keating said in a statement. “It is the fact that former prime ministers of all countries meet ministers of...