June 16, 2018
By Saeed Qureshi
It is unbelievable that president Trump could
publicly deride Justin Trudeau the youthful prime minister of Canada:
a neighboring and friendly country. On the contrary he eulogizes and goes all
the way to have a meeting with Kim Jong-un, the 3rd Supreme Leader of North Korea. That
historic summit meeting between president
Trump and the North Korean
leader Kim Jong-un
took place on June 12, 2018, in Singapore.
He praised Kim for a host of traits one of which is to get long applause and
discipline from his countrymen over which he rules as a spiritual figure.
Of all the countries United States has been
treating North Korea as a hostile state because of its being a communist totalitarian
state. Secondly it has been making rapid advances in the development of nuclear
arsenal technology. In the beginning and after assuming the presidency of the
United States, Trump has been trading innuendoes and sharp-tonged expletives with
Kim Jong. Even otherwise North Korea as a communist state and friend of China,
has remained a pariah state for decades. On the contrary, since beginning,
South Korea has been treated to be a close and a trusted ally by the United
States. The situation, all of sudden took a 180-degree drastic turn. On June
12, 2018, the first USA-North Korea summit meeting was held in Singapore. It
helped in melting away the long-standing acrimony between two formerly hostile
countries.
On the other hand, the 44th G7 summit was held on 8–9 June 2018, in Canada. This
was the sixth time since 1981 that Canada has hosted this high-profile meeting. President Trump left the meeting by accusing
that why the summit was dubbed as "G6+1".It meant that
USA was not a proper member of G7 summit
because of withdrawal of the United
States from the Joint Comprehensive Plan
of Action as well as from the Paris Agreement. Americas tariffs, and trade-related disputes between Trump and
the French President Emmanuel Macron and Canadian Prime Minister could
be another factor.
On 9 June 2018, from Singapore
Trump tweeted that he had instructed the representatives of the United States
not to endorse the communique of the 44th G7 summit. At a news
conference, he harshly dubbed prime minister Trudeau as "meek and mild dishonest
& weak”. The
performance of the United States and president Trump’s walkout from the G7 summit
meeting received unanimous condemnation from foreign policy
experts, political scientists, and former diplomats.
The Singapore summit meeting between
the two heads of state of the most mutually hostile countries unbelievably exhibited
mutual trust, goodwill and compromise or agreement on many issues. It expressed the will to work together on
contentious issues including the de-nuclearization of the Korean peninsula and enhancement
of mutual relationship including the trade.
Besides giving number of
concessions to north Korea, the joint statement signed by both the presidents specifically
outlined a host of other measures for North Korea from the United states. This
package includes: establishing a new format of the U.S.-DPRK relations in
accordance with the desire of the peoples of the two countries for peace and
prosperity, to build a lasting peace in the Korean Peninsula, reaffirmation of
the Panmunjom Declaration dated April 27, 2018. It declares to work towards the complete de-nuclearization of
the Korean Peninsula and recovering POW/MIA
remains including the immediate repatriation of those already identified.
Despite this amazing and
gubernatorial achievement on the part of the two defiant and thus far hostile
countries, United States has almost isolated herself under the presidency of
Donald Trump from its erstwhile European allies as well as close door neighbor
Canada. United States’ infringement for instance of its withdrawal from the
Paris agreement and imposition of high tariffs and import’s duties in the
imports from the neighboring as well as the European countries not to speak of Peoples
Republic of China is a big impediment in the way of maintaining smooth
relationship with her partners. If it is a question of treating the whole world
particularly the political and trade allies with a stick and at the cost of
harming their business interests, then this paradigm is destined to fizzle out.
The domestic feuding, bad blood
and condemnation within the United States with politicians and media by
president Trump may be ignored. Yet it would be utterly and outright fallacy to
treat other sovereign states to be tied to the apron strings as lesser and unequal
partners. President Trump has to be tolerant and accommodating and diplomatic
in his forays both domestically and globally.
The Declaration of Restoration of
peace in the Korean Peninsula ought to be a remarkable achievement for that
part of the world and China as well which a close ally of North Korea.
Undoubtedly, that kind of peace serves the interests of North Korea much more
(for being a besieged and economically poor country) than the United States which
is the leading world economic and military power in its own right.
This has been a momentous step in
the right direction towards lessening the tension and jingoism in a very
crucial part of the world. However, in other situations as the conflicts in the
Middle East, president Trump seems to be having an erratic foreign policy
mindset. He has been a vocal antagonist of the illegal immigration across the
borders with Mexico and other countries bordering America.
He ordered a travel ban on
citizens from several Muslim-majority countries thus brewing an anti-American
sentiment in those lands with which America has been having cordial relations
such as Pakistan and Afghnistan. He is averse to accommodating and allowing the
displaced families and people from the war-torn lands and civil war ridden societies
as witnessed by blocking of the entry of huge crowds that travelled all the way
to Mexico-US border for safety and a better life in USA. Domestically he is at loggers’
head with the media, homeland security, justice department and other government
departments and individuals such as the former FBI director James Comey.
President Trump does not drink
alcohol. This decision arose in part from watching his older brother Fred Jr.
suffer from alcoholism and as a result of his early death in 1981. President
Trump claims that he has never smoked cigarettes or consumed drugs, including
marijuana.
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