
When Ronald Reagan met Mikhail Gorbachev in their landmark 1985 summit, the US president used a bit of crafty gamesmanship to get an early advantage.
Though a stiff wind was blowing off Lake Geneva, Reagan’s aides decided the US president should greet Mr Gorbachev without an overcoat. The Soviet leader – who appeared wearing a thick coat and scarf – was 24 years younger than Reagan, but the American had scored a powerful point about their perceived relative strength and vigour; when they held their second session of the summit, Mr Gorbachev also did without a coat.
As Donald Trump and Kim Jong-un were making final preparations for their Tuesday encounter, it was not clear whether either will bother with an overcoat. Singapore is famously hot and humid, but because it is so sticky here, the air conditioning inside buildings tends to be fierce. Either way, the US president has said he intends to take on Mr Kim – 37 years his younger – man-to-man, Ronald Reagan-style, meeting him for their first session with nobody present but their translators. Reports suggest that meeting could last two hours.
It was precisely this same approach employed by the US and Soviet leaders 33 years ago, in a meeting that some have likened this current summit to, in terms of its possible significance. Scheduled for just 15 minutes, that meeting stretched to more than an hour, “leaving half a dozen advisers from each side to wait in an ornate salon”.
Experts say there are many differences between the events and the people involved, but there are also similarities. Just as in Geneva, experts say the personal chemistry the two leaders manage to develop will be more important than anything in deciding whether a genuine peace progress goes forward.
William Taubman, the Pulitzer-winning author of Gorbachev: His Life and Times, said Mr Trump would have to use all his charm. “He can be charming, sometimes,” Mr Taubman told The Independent, speaking from Amherst College, Massachusetts.
With the two leaders having flown into Singapore on Sunday, aides of Mr Trump and Mr Kim talked on Monday morning to try and make as much progress as possible on details, before the two leaders meet.
Mr Trump has said he will know “within minutes” if he can trust Mr Kim. (George W Bush made a positive, snap assessment of Vladimir Putin in 2001, saying in comments he would later regret, that he “saw his soul”.)
It has long been clear that there is a considerable difference of opinion between the two sides as to what “complete, verifiable, irreversible disarmament” means.
While some in the Trump administration believe North Korea should immediately scrap its weapons, there is little likelihood of it happening quickly and without getting something considerable in exchange.
Yet in what may be an insight into the shift in North Korean thinking, its state-run KCNA news agency said the two sides would exchange “wide-ranging and profound views” to re-set relations. It heralded the summit as part of a “changed era”.
It added that discussions would focus on “the issue of building a permanent and durable peace-keeping mechanism on the Korean peninsula, the issue of realising the denuclearisation of the Korean peninsula and other issues of mutual concern”.
Donald Trump, who on Monday morning visited Singapore’s prime minister Lee Hsien Loong for lunch, started the day by tweeting: “Great to be in Singapore, excitement in the air.”
He later told his Singaporean host: “We’ve got a very interesting meeting in particular tomorrow, and I think things can work out very nicely.”
He added: “We do appreciate your hospitality, your professionalism, and your friendship.”
US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, who held secret talks with Mr Kim to secure the summit, said in a tweet that Washington was “committed to the complete, verifiable, irreversible denuclearisation of the Korean peninsula”.
Many experts on North Korea, one of the most insular and unpredictable countries in the world, remain sceptical Mr Kim will ever completely abandon its nuclear weapons. They believe Mr Kim’s latest engagement is aimed at getting the United States to ease the crippling sanctions that have squeezed the impoverished country.
World news in pictures
1/50 11 June 2018
US President Donald Trump looking at a cake being brought for him during a working lunch with Singapore’s Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong during his visit to The Istana, the official residence of the prime minister, in Singapore. Kim Jong Un and Donald Trump will meet on June 12 for an unprecedented summit, with the US President calling it a “one time shot” at peace.
AFP/Getty
2/50 10 June 2018
Muharrem Ince, presidential candidate of Turkey’s main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP), delivers a speech from the roof of a bus during a campaign meeting in Istanbul
AFP/Getty
3/50 9 June 2018
French President Emmanuel Macron, German Chancellor Angela Merkel and Japan’s Prime Minister Shinzo Abe speaking to US Presidend Donald Trump during the second day of the G7 meeting in Charlevoix, Canada. Looking on is US National Security Advisor John R. Bolton.
EPA
4/50 8 June 2018
Former South African President Jacob Zuma sings and dances on stage after delivering a speech during a rally in his support outside the High Court, in Durban on June 8, 2018
AFP/Getty
5/50 7 June 2018
Russian President Vladimir Putin listens to a question during his annual call-in show in Moscow. Putin hosts call-in shows every year, which typically provide a platform for ordinary Russians to appeal to the president on issues ranging from foreign policy to housing and utilities.
AP
6/50 6 June 2018
Protesters wave flags and shout slogans during a demonstration against the use of the term “Macedonia” in any solution to a dispute between Athens and Skopje over the former Yugoslav republic’s name, in the northern town of Pella, Greece.
Reuters
7/50 5 June 2018
Police officers salute as the caskets of policewomen Soraya Belkacemi, 44, and Lucile Garcia, 54, arrive during their funeral in Liege. The two officers, and one bystander were killed in Liege on Tuesday by a gunman. Police later killed the attacker, and other officers were wounded in the shooting.
AP
8/50 4 June 2018
A rescue worker carries a child covered with ash after a volcano erupted violently in El Rodeo, Guatemala. Volcan de Fuego, whose name means “Volcano of Fire”, spewed an 8km (5-mile) stream of red hot lava and belched a thick plume of black smoke and ash that rained onto the capital and other regions. Dozens were killed across three villages.
Reuters
9/50 3 June 2018
A recycler drags a huge bag of paper sorted for recycling past a heap of non-recyclable material at Richmond sanitary landfill site in the industrial city of Bulawayo. Plastic waste remains a challenging waste management issue due to its non-biodegrable nature, if not managed properly plastic ends up as litter polluting water ways, wetlands and storm drains causing flash flooding around Zimbabwe’s cities and towns. Urban and rural areas are fighting the continuous battle against a scourge of plastic litter. On June 5, 2018 the United Nations mark the World Environment Day which plastic pollution is the main theme this year.
AFP/Getty
10/50 2 June 2018
Palestinian mourners carry the body of 21-year-old medical volunteer Razan al-Najjar during her funeral after she was shot dead by Israeli soldiers near the Gaza border fence on June 1, in another day of protests and violence. She was shot near Khan Yunis in the south of the territory, health ministry spokesman Ashraf al-Qudra said, bringing the toll of Gazans killed by Israeli fire since the end of March to 123.
AFP/Getty
11/50 1 June 2018
Spain’s new Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez poses after a vote on a no-confidence motion at the Spanish Parliament in Madrid. Spain’s parliament ousted Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy in a no-confidence vote sparked by fury over his party’s corruption woes, with his Socialist arch-rival Pedro Sanchez automatically taking over.
AFP/Getty
12/50 31 May 2018
Zinedine Zidane looks on after a press conference to announce his resignation as manager from Real Madrid. He confirmed he was leaving the Spanish giants, just days after winning the Champions League for the third year in a row.
AFP/Getty
13/50 30 May 2018
A worker cleans up the Millenaire migrants makeshift camp along the Canal de Saint-Denis near Porte de la Villette, northern Paris, following its evacuation on May 30. More than a thousand migrants and refugees were evacuated early in the morning from the camp that had been set up for several weeks along the Canal.
AFP/Getty
14/50 29 May 2018
Police and ambulances are seen at the site where a gunman shot dead three people, two of them policemen, before being killed by elite officers, in the eastern Belgian city of Liege.
AFP/Getty
15/50 28 May 2018
French President Emmanuel Macron meets with Mamoudou Gassama, 22, from Mali, at the presidential Elysee Palace in Paris. Gassama living illegally in France is being honored by Macron for scaling an apartment building over the weekend to save a 4-year-old child dangling from a fifth-floor balcony.
AP
16/50 27 May 2018
Migrants wait to disembark from the ship Aquarius in the Sicilian harbour of Catania, Italy
Reuters
17/50 26 May 2018
Ireland awaits the official result of a referendum that could end the country’s ban on abortion. Co-Director of Together For Yes Ailbhe Smyth speaks to the media after exit polls suggested victory for the Yes campaign.
PA Wire/PA Images
18/50 25 May 2018
Film producer Harvey Weinstein arrives at the 1st Precinct in Manhattan where he turned himself in to New York police for sexual misconduct charges.
Reuters
19/50 24 May 2018
Russian President Vladimir Putin (R) meets with his French counterpart Emmanuel Macron at the Konstantin Palace in Strelna, outside Saint Petersburg, on May 24, 2018
Getty Images
20/50 23 May 2018
People protest outisde the Tamil Nadu House after at least 10 people were killed when police fired on protesters seeking closure of plant on environmental grounds in town of Thoothukudi in southern state of Tamil Nadu, in New Delhi.
ANI via Reuters
21/50 22 May 2018
People demonstrate in Paris during a nationwide day protest by French public sector employees and public servants against the overhauls proposed by French President Emmanuel Macron, calling them an “attack” by the centrist leader against civil services as well as their economic security.
AFP/Getty
22/50 21 May 2018
Newly appointed Catalan president Quim Torra arrives to visit jailed Catalan separatist politicians at the Estremera jail near Madrid.
AFP/Getty
23/50 20 May 2018
Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro casts his vote during the presidential elections in Caracas. Maduro was seeking a second term in power.
AFP/Getty
24/50 19 May 2018
Channelized lava emerges on Kilauea Volcano’s lower East Rift Zone on Hawaii. The USGS said on its website that “a fast-moving pahoehoe lava flow that emerged from fissure 20… continues to flow southeast,” with the quickest of three “lobes” progressing at 230 yards (210 meters) per hour.
AFP/US Geological Survey
25/50 18 May 2018
Santa Fe High School student Dakota Shrader is comforted by her mother Susan Davidson following a shooting at the school in Texas. Shrader said her friend was shot in the incident. Multiple people have been killed.
Stuart Villanueva/The Galveston County Daily News via AP
26/50 17 May 2018
French President Emmanuel Macron, British Prime Minister Theresa May and German Chancellor Angela Merkel meeting during the EU-Western Balkans Summit in Sofia, Bulgaria.
Reuters
27/50 16 May 2018
People hold flags with the state coat of arms of Russia as they drive along a bridge, which was constructed to connect the Russian mainland with the Crimean Peninsula across the Kerch Strait.
Reuters
28/50 15 May 2018
Palestinians run away from tear gas shot at them by Israeli forces during a protest in Ramallah, in the occupied West Bank
AFP/Getty
29/50 14 May 2018
A Palestinian demonstrator runs during a protest against the US embassy move to Jerusalem and ahead of the 70th anniversary of the Nakba at the Israel-Gaza border.
REUTERS
30/50 13 May 2018
A bullet hole on the window of a cafe in Paris, the day after a knifeman killed one man and wounded four other people before being shot dead by police
AFP/Getty
31/50 12 May 2018
Germany’s Chancellor Angela Merkel looks on after receiving the ‘Lamp of Peace, the “Nobel” Catholic award for “her work of conciliation for the peaceful cohabitation of peoples” at The Basilica Superiore of St Francis of Assisi in Italy.
AFP/Getty
32/50 11 May 2018
Police forensics investigate the death of seven people in a suspected murder-suicide in Australia. Four children are among seven people that were found dead at a rural property in Osmington, near Margaret River. Detectives are investigating the incident, which was said to be treated as a murder-suicide, media reported. Two firearms were found at the scene, Western Australia Police said.
EPA
33/50 10 May 2018
Missiles rise into the sky as Israeli missiles hit air defense position and other military bases, in Damascus, Syria. The Israeli military on Thursday said it attacked “dozens” of Iranian targets in neighboring Syria in response to an Iranian rocket barrage on Israeli positions in the Golan Heights, in the most serious military confrontation between the two bitter enemies to date.
Reuters
34/50 9 May 2018
Iranian MPs burning a US flag in the parliament in Tehran. Iran said it will hold talks with signatories to a nuclear deal after US President Donald Trump’s decision to withdraw from the accord, which it branded “psychological warfare”. President Hassan Rouhani also said Iran could resume uranium enrichment “without limit” in response to Trump’s announcement.
AFP/Islamic Consultative Assembly News Agency
35/50 8 May 2018
Newly elected Prime Minister of Armenia Nikol Pashinian addresses the crowd in Republic Square in Yerevan. The leader of protests that gripped Armenia for weeks was named the country’s new prime minister on Tuesday, overcoming the immediate political turmoil but raising uncertainty about the longer term.
AP
36/50 7 May 2018
Russian President Vladimir Putin walks before his President inauguration ceremony at the Kremlin in Moscow.
Reuters
37/50 6 May 2018
Lava from a robust fissure eruption on Kilauea’s east rift zone consumes a home, then threatens another, near Pahoa, Hawaii. The total number of homes lost within the Leilani Estates subdivision thus far is 21, and geologists from the Hawaii Volcanoes Observatory do not expect the eruption to cease any time soon. A local state of emergency has been declared after Mount Kilauea erupted near residential areas, forcing mandatory evacuation of about 1,700 citizens from their nearby homes. The crater’s floor collapsed on 01 May and is since then continuing to erode its walls and generating huge explosions of ashes. Several earthquakes have been recorded in the area where the volcanic eruptions continue, including a 6.9 magnitue earthquake which struck the area on 4 May.
EPA/PARADISE HELICOPTERS
38/50 5 May 2018
Russian police carrying struggling opposition leader Alexei Navalny at a demonstration against President Vladimir Putin in Moscow. Thousands of demonstrators denouncing Putin’s upcoming inauguration into a fourth term gathered in the capital’s Pushkin Square.
AP
39/50 4 May 2018
Chinese President Xi Jinping speaks at an event to mark Karl Marx’s 200th birthday at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing.
AP
40/50 3 May 2018
President Vladimir Putin meets with FIFA president Gianni Infantino in Sochi, ahead of the 2018 World Cup in Russia.
AFP/Getty
41/50 2 May 2018
Supporters of opposition lawmaker Nikol Pashinyan protest in Republic Square in Yerevan, Armenia. Pashinyan has urged his supporters to block roads, railway stations and airports after the governing Republican Party voted against his election as prime minister.
AP
42/50 1 May 2018
Cubans march during the May Day rally at Revolution Square in Havana.
AFP/Getty
43/50 30 April 2018
The sky is the limit: A Saudi man and woman fly over the Arabian Sarawat Mountains in the first ever joint wingsuit flight in traditional dress. A symbolic leap of faith towards women’s empowerment in Saudi Arabia.
Alwaleed Philanthropies
44/50 29 April 2018
A general view for the damaged railway station in al-Qadam neighborhood, after it was recaptured from Islamic State militants, in the south of Damascus. According to media reports, the Syrian army continued the military offensive it has launched earlier this month against militant groups entrenching in southern Damascus and captured several neighborhoods, including al-Qadam and al-Assali and targeting the remnants of armed groups in al-Hajar al-Aswad and its surrounding in Damascus southern countryside.
EPA
45/50 28 April 2018
Comedian Michelle Wolf attends the Celebration After the White House Correspondents’ Dinner. Conservatives walked out after Wolf brutally ridiculed President Donald Trump and his aides during her piece.
Getty
46/50 27 April 2018
North Korean leader Kim Jong Un and South Korean President Moon Jae-in raise their hands after signing on a joint statement North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, left, and South Korean President Moon Jae-in raise their hands after signing on a joint statement at the border village of Panmunjom in the Demilitarized Zone, South Korea. The Korean War will be formally declared over after 65 years, the North and South have said.
At a historic summit between leaders Kim Jong-Un and Moon Jae-in, the neighbouring countries agreed they would work towards peace on the peninsula with a formal end to the conflict set to be announced later this year.
The pair agreed to bring the two countries together and establish a “peace zone” on the contested border.
Korea Summit Press Pool via AP
47/50 26 April 2018
Women hold portraits of their relatives, who are victims of the Chernobyl nuclear disaster, during a commemoration ceremony in Kiev, Ukraine.
Reuters
48/50 25 April 2018
Rohingya refugees gather in the “no man’s land” behind Myanmar’s boder lined with barb wire fences in Maungdaw district, Rakhine state bounded by Bangladesh. Myanmar government said on April 15, it repatriated on April 14 the first family of Rohingya out of some 700,000 refugees who have fled a brutal military campaign, a move slammed by a rights group as a PR stunt ignoring UN warnings that a safe return is not yet possible.
AFP/Getty
49/50 24 April 2018
President Donald Trump, French President Emmanuel Macron, first lady Melania Trump and Brigitte Macron hold hands on the White House balcony during a State Arrival Ceremony in Washington.
AP
50/50 23 April 2018
A boy walks on a pile of garbage covering a drain in New Delhi.
Reuters
“The White House apparently has not convened a Cabinet-level meeting, as Trump continues to eschew the traditional decision-making processes, which had been designed to ensure a whole-of-government approach to national security problems,” Jung H Pak, a Korea expert at Brookings wrote recently.
“These are worrisome developments because when Trump goes into that room with Kim, there will be few guardrails to check his assumptions about what Kim wants and what Trump himself can deliver.”
Indeed, some have pointed out that while no sitting US president has sat down with a North Korean leader, Pyongyang has twice previously appeared ready to give up its nuclear programme in exchange for the easing of sanctions, most importantly in 1994 and 2003, only for it to back away.
Mr Trump has bragged that he intended to do only minimal preparation for the summit. However, his administration insists all bases are covered. Reuters quoted one US official as saying: “We will not be surprised by any scenario.”
Residents of Singapore, a former British colony that gleams with new buildings and shopping malls but which is listed at 151 on the press freedom index published annually by Reporters without Borders, appear proud of their role in hosting the summit.
Close to the St Regis hotel, where Mr Kim is staying, Stacey Tay, a paediatrician out walking, said she felt pride in her nation’s ability to pull it tougher so quickly. “We are able to do this and contribute,” she said.
Magdalena Sanguinetti, who has lived in Singapore for three years, said it would help raise the international profile of a country of just 5.5m people. “It’s a sign that this country is capable of putting on an event like this,” she said.
The summit is being held in the luxury Capella hotel, designed by British architect Norman Foster and located on the island of Sentosa, half a mile by causeway or cable car.
The hotel itself was under tight security. But at the nearby Universal Studios Singapore, families were busy enjoying their day. Some were aware of the historic meeting due to take place just a few hundred metres away.
“It’s a coincidence that we came here on holiday while the summit is happening,” said Alvin Gaspar, 45, a telecommunications worker from the Philippines.
“But we are interested to see what they can do. The impact of this is not just on North Korea, but the entire world.”
Source link