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This week, Indonesian leader Prabowo Subianto thought he was having a private conversation with American leader Donald Trump during Middle East peace talks in Egypt.

Instead, a live microphone situation revealed Prabowo asking Trump to arrange a call with his son Don Jr, who hold positions at the family business.

It represented only one in a string of missteps made by international figures when they assume no one can hear them.

Below are five other noteworthy errors:

Organ Transplants and Everlasting Life

At a military parade in Beijing in early autumn, Chinese President Xi Jinping and Russian President Vladimir Putin were recorded talking about organ transplants as a method for prolonging life.

"Vital organs can be repeatedly transplanted. The longer you live, the more youthful you get, and you can even achieve immortality," the Russian translator was heard saying.

Xi, who was not visible, responded in Chinese: "Experts forecast that in the current era people may live to 150 years old."

Dialogue heard between Chinese president Xi Jinping and Russian leader Vladimir Putin

'Sea Rising at Your Door'

Former Australian border protection chief Peter Dutton came under fire in 2015 when he joked about the situation of residents in the Pacific facing rising sea levels.

Dutton was speaking to then-prime minister Tony Abbott, who had recently come back from environmental talks with Pacific Island leaders in Port Moresby.

Observing how a meeting about refugees was running on "delayed schedule", Abbott responded: "There was a similar situation up in Port Moresby."

Dutton commented: "Schedules become irrelevant when you're about to have the ocean reaching your home."

The comments sparked outrage from Pacific Islands and climate activists, while the opposition Labor party demanded Dutton to issue an apology.

Peter Dutton recorded making jokes with Tony Abbott about rising sea levels

'Bigoted Woman'

While serving as UK PM Gordon Brown was on the trail in 2010, he faced a voter who questioned him on migration and the economic situation.

Still wired up to a Sky news microphone when he got into his vehicle, Brown was heard saying: "That went terribly – they should never have put me with that woman. Whose idea was that? Ridiculous."

Asked what she had said, he replied: "Everything, she was just a prejudiced person."

The scandal received extensive coverage for weeks and Brown ultimately lost the election.

'I Can't Stand Netanyahu. He's a Liar.'

Ex-American leader Barack Obama was in conversation at the international conference in Cannes in 2011 with France's leader Nicolas Sarkozy when their remarks about Israel's prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu were picked up by a live microphone.

Sarkozy said: "I cannot bear Netanyahu. He's a liar."

According to a version from a French interpreter quoted by Reuters, Obama replied: "You're fed up with him but I must work with him more often than you."

'Total ***hole'

A classic hot-mic moment from former White House hopeful George W. Bush happened as he made a disparaging remark about a journalist from The New York Times.

The GOP candidate was didn't realize that a microphone was live when he leaned over to Dick Cheney at a Labor Day rally and said, "That's Adam Clymer, complete jerk from the New York Times."

Cheney answered: "Absolutely, he is, definitely."

Bush at a political gathering in 2000