The much-publicised meeting between the US President Donald Trump and the North Korean leader Kim Jong Un did take place in Singapore yesterday, after a virtual flower petal game by the US president, to call off the summit and to keep it alive, alternatively at the same time. Such postures of the POTUS are hardly surprising, knowing Trump’s predictable unpredictability.
Kim seems an extraordinary leader of a nation, a rogue for the west just until the other day and a sudden friend of the US president after the summit. The Korean leader, who managed to keep the world on tenterhooks with his threat of bombing South Korea, Japan and even the USA and suddenly mellowing down to the extent of ‘looking forward’ for the summit with the US President, has surprised many.
China virtually controls North Korea’s economy and the success of the summit and Kim’s offer to denuclearise the Korean Peninsula must surely be a shock to China. The POTUS flying down to Singapore to meet Kim may not be merely for a peace Nobel for another president but has much greater ramification on the Pacific and to China.
China has been flexing its muscles on the South China Sea, the passage which controls trillions of dollars’ worth of maritime trade. China has also usurped large tracts of offshore properties, rich in oil and mineral resources, causing heartburn in several nations like Indonesia, Vietnam etc. It has built an air force base on a disputed island and menacingly growling the seas with its aircraft carrier and other armadas on the waters.
A concerned US, Japan, Australia and India have joined ranks to decry the Chinese manoeuvres and India has also started regularly participating in joint naval exercises to counter China’s threats. The US was looking to defang China and what better option could it have had than weaning Kim away, at least for the moment.
While Japan and South Korea could be heaving a sigh of relief, welcoming the developments, the Chinese have maintained a studied silence so far. Kim has demanded safety of his reign and has seemingly extracted an assurance from the American president, though the latter’s poor record in keeping his words are well known.
As far as India is concerned, we should be one of the first nations to strengthen our diplomatic relations and should revive our trade with North Korea. Malaysia has already announced to reopen its embassy in North Korea, and many would follow soon.
I guess it is the best achievement by Trump so far in his tenure, pushing the ticking atomic clock substantially away. If two nations, which just the other week called each other names and threatened to pulverise one another could meet and shake hands, it shows that diplomacy and statesmanship are still alive. When they could make peace, can we, with our recalcitrant neighbour ever? The Singapore summit plainly says the day may not be far off!
Sampath Kumar
Intrépide voix
Pic courtesy: nbc news
