What an embassy reception reveals about informal diplomacy

What unusual diplomatic-event experience does the video recount?

At a US Embassy reception, Russian, French, Canadian, and British participants gathered informally at the bar and ended up discussing frigate programs.

The story is lighthearted, but it illustrates the informal relationships underneath official diplomacy. Russian, French, Canadian, and British participants gathered at the bar during a US Embassy event. A joke about drinking other countries' drinks accompanies the story, although the Canadian participant's drink is not recalled with certainty. Their informal conversation turned to frigate programs. Staying near the bar made one place an effective networking point because people circulated past it. Such conversations connect formal national representation with the ways officials learn how counterparts think.