IT has become traditional at the ministerial conferences of ASEAN, the Association of South East Asian Nations, to end the proceedings with an informal hooley where everyone is expected to produce a party piece or two. So it was with some trepidation that on Wednesday night Dick Spring called the EU delegation to his bedroom in the Jakarta Hilton for a rehearsal.
The EU Troika which the Tanaiste chairs comprises the outgoing presidency, the current one, and the next hence there was a most cosmopolitan gathering of Irish, Italians, Dutch and the Commissioner for Asia, Spaniard Manuel Marin.
Dick suggested The Rose Of Tralee as their contribution to the entertainment. But it was not to be the assembled singers were more familiar with Danny Boy and what's more, the local band knew it. According to a reliable source it was belted out with great gusto.
The EU contingent then continued with a Dutch request, a jolly Indonesian song, and then what one Irish participant described as " well known Italian aria, O Lara O O O - ye know the one I mean".
The US team, led by Secretary of State, Warren Christopher, all dressed in Olympic T shirts and baseball caps, contributed a specially written country and western/eastern number with suitably politically correct references to the events of the previous couple of days.
In thanking his guests the Indonesian Foreign Minister Ali Alatas paid special tribute to the EU's contribution to the soiree. Does this mean there will now be a musical clause in the amendments to the Treaty provisions on diplomacy?