Kevin Rudd has poked fun at last week's meeting in New York between US President Donald Trump and Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull.
The former prime minister, while moderating an Asia Society discussion on Mr Trump's first 100 days in the White House, said he was on the USS Intrepid aircraft carrier when the president and Mr Turnbull dined together at the Battle of the Coral Sea 75th anniversary event.
It was the leaders' first meeting since their volatile January 28 phone call over the Australia-US refugee deal.
Mr Rudd joked a phone could have come in handy at the dinner.
"We had thought of just establishing a hotline between them on the table so they could speak to each other through the phone and put it back together," Mr Rudd told the audience at the Asia Society's Manhattan headquarters on Wednesday.
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Mr Rudd sat on a table near Mr Trump and Mr Turnbull on the USS Intrepid and said the two leaders seemed to get along.
He noted Mr Trump was late to arrive in New York for his bilateral meeting with Mr Turnbull.
"The president was a couple of hours late," Mr Rudd, president of the Asia Society Policy Institute, said.
"We're a pretty casual lot in Australia, but that was a little late even for us.
"He was celebrating the outcome on the House of Representatives vote on Obamacare, but it all seemed to be pretty convivial around the table."
