But when Mr Cameron met Vladimir Putin, it was more grimace than grin.
When Mr Cameron visited Indonesia earlier this year, he said it was time to sell more British defence equipment to an important democracy.
With their eyes fixed on the next election, Tory modernisers want to finish what they started in 2005, when Mr Cameron took over.
During the 2010 election, when Mr Cameron dominated Tory advertising, a colleague asked Mr Osborne if his face might feature on campaign posters.
When Mr Cameron became Conservative leader in 2005 and set about trying to modernise the party, he reportedly described himself to political journalists as the "heir to Blair".
It was even better when Mr Cameron appeared to respond in kind with a slight on Salt Lake City by saying "of course it is easier if you hold an Olympic Games in the middle of nowhere".
Later on Wednesday, Mr Adams said that when he was told of Mr Cameron's remarks it was the first he had "heard of this development".
Mr Brown provoked jeers from the Conservative benches when he pointed out that Mr Cameron had given a "cast-iron guarantee" to hold a referendum on the Lisbon Treaty.
He wants Mr Cameron to intervene when councils cut charitable grants instead of trimming their own payrolls.
When it comes to foreign affairs, Mr Cameron is clear about what he is not.
Britain has long enjoyed close relations with the Arab world but Mr Cameron was in opposition when Tony Blair helped rehabilitate Colonel Qaddafi as a reward for giving up his weapons of mass destruction, forsaking terrorism and helping out in the fight against al-Qaeda.
When asked about hints that David Cameron could promise a referendum on Europe, Mr Clarke said people should be "cautious" when predicting such a promise in the next Tory manifesto.
Mr Cameron also pressed Mr Brown on when an announcement might be expected from US President Barack Obama on the deployment of more US troops to Afghanistan.
When the Tories installed the fearsomely well-bred Mr Cameron, and he then kept George Osborne, another toff, as his shadow chancellor, party and leader bet that voters would no longer hold a penchant for shooting grouse against them.
On a more serious note, it speaks approvingly of the fact that Mr Cameron has gone against the grain when most EU countries "have tacitly agreed to build Europe without input from the citizens, as if the European project is too important for democracy to have a say".
Mr Miliband accused the coalition of axing a Labour initiative which stopped some train firms from increasing fares by substantially more than the standard "inflation plus 1%" cap, but Mr Cameron said Labour had allowed greater rises when in power.
In 2005 - at a time when David Cameron was about to become Conservative leader - Mr Johnson told the BBC that it was important for society, "in an evolutionary sense", that politicians believed they could rise to the top.
Mr Cameron said it was inevitable there would be criticism when ministers were or were not referred, and it was right that the prime minister should be accountable to Parliament in such cases.
In January, Mr Cameron gave the first hint of a government rethink when he warned of the "cliff edge" some families might face with the removal of child benefit for all top-rate taxpayers.
Mr Cameron asked whether that was fair, at a time when many youngsters live with their parents while saving to move out.
He was subsequently made shadow leader of the Commons by Mr Cameron and took up the role on the government side when the coalition came to power after the May 2010 general election.
Mr Cameron, who started working for the Conservatives in 1988 when Lady Thatcher was still in No 10, acknowledged some people did not agree with her politics, but he suggested large parts of her legacy were undisputed.
The result is a marginal improvement for Mr Cameron on the vote at Monday's second reading, when 175 MPs opposed the plans.
The pragmatism is partly domestic: Mr Cameron knows British voters are quite Eurosceptic, but dislike it when his party obsesses about the subject.
The two men's differences on the issue were highlighted when the deputy prime minister did not attend the House of Commons on Monday for Mr Cameron's statement to MPs about using the veto in Brussels.
Mr Cameron also said that although there were more people in work now than when the coalition came to power, youth unemployment in particular needed to fall.
Mr Cameron also said it was "easier for people to believe and practise other faiths when Britain has confidence in its Christian identity".
No 10 said Mr Cameron had not been informed of the operation in advance and learned of it only when he had phoned his Algerian counterpart at 11:00 GMT on Thursday.
Mr Cameron has said he would consider a referendum on the UK's EU relationship, when the time was right.
He may raise questions about the wisdom of Mr Cameron's decision to hire the editor who resigned from the News of the World when phone hacking was first revealed and to befriend Rupert Murdoch's right-hand woman.
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