Will’s Word: What happened at Winston’s Washington meeting?

If Vaovasamanaia Winston Peters' meeting with Marco Rubio was, frankly, a play, it'd be one of those well-rehearsed diplomatic performances.

By all accounts, the Foreign Affairs Minister and the US Secretary of State had “a substantive and productive discussion” covering trade, security, regional stability - all that good stuff.

But you have to ask, did Winston walk away with anything significant, or did anything happen?

Peters pointed out that New Zealand has been waiting for a trade agreement since 1870, a fun fact that surely made Rubio chuckle before swiftly moving on.

On the awkward tariff situation, Winston is “more confident than before”, which is diplomat-speak for, arguably, we had a nice chat and nothing really happened.

Even the briefing on Trump's phone call with Putin had all the excitement of a second-hand summary but we didn't really get much on that from Peters.

Speaking of Peters, he was also keen to remind New Zealanders that we must let the dust settle on Trump 2.0 before making hasty judgements.

That's fair enough, after all, Peters “walks into every room having said nothing stupid”, he says - which is a diplomatic skill that some of his international counterparts could learn from.

Looking at you, Trump.

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In the end, was anything new achieved? Hard to say.

One thing remains certain, though, no matter the outcome, Winston Peters was, as always, impeccably dressed.

If diplomacy is sometimes just a performance, at least he ensures Aotearoa is the best-dressed lead on the world stage.

That's Will’s Word.