The Language of Diplomacy?

Decades ago when learning French one of the reasons given was it was the language of diplomacy, just in case. English was for trade and French was too fine a language to be abused with the trivialities of commerce.

Now comes the Australians, and its Foreign Minister. The BBC reports:

Australia's Foreign Minister Julie Bishop says relations with the US are :-) in an interview with Buzzfeed conducted almost entirely in emojis. In what the website says is a world first, Ms Bishop also uses the icons to indicate she is a cat not dog person. She also touched on serious issues, using a frowning face to describe Russian leader Vladimir Putin and a :-| for her view of ties with Indonesia. Ms Bishop is widely seen as a potential future Australian prime minister. 

You really can't make this up, or can you? After all we have a current president prancing around taking personal photos and displaying it on multiple media outlets. We have a bare chested Russian leader on a horse, and so forth. I wonder what the Chinese really think of the West? Possibly just wait a bit and it will fall of its own self selfies!

Gone is the elegance of Diplomatic French, I really liked those old days. No emojis.