Time (February 28)
“Trump landed in Hanoi early this week eager for a victory as drama was unfolding in Washington.” Instead, he left “empty-handed,” with nothing to show from the second summit with Kim Jong Un.
Tags: Drama, Eager, Empty-handed, Hanoi, Kim, Summit, Trump, Unfolding, Victory, Washington
Wall Street Journal (February 26)
“Give some credit to President Trump.” He has broken “all convention, but it has created an opening to reduce the risk of nuclear war. The question as Mr. Trump prepares for his second summit with the North Korean is whether that mutual bonhomie can translate into tangible measures that actually reduce that risk. It hasn’t so far, notwithstanding Mr. Trump’s claims.”
Tags: Claims, Convention, North Korea, Nuclear war, Risk, Summit, Tangible measures, Trump
Washington Post (February 25)
“Trump’s delusional mind-set makes him a sitting duck for Kim to trade flattery (of Trump) for concessions (from Trump). Kim already achieved a level of respectability no other North Korean leader has attained—without a single meaningful and irreversible concession—simply by virtue of a summit that turned into a PR coup.”
Tags: Concession, Concessions, Delusional, Flattery, Irreversible, Kim, Meaningful, North Korea, PR coup, Respectability, Summit, Trump
New York Magazine (July 23)
Donald Trump is “slowly realizing it’s North Korea’s reality show, not his.” The President “seems to be learning, the hard way, that epic peace deals with foreign leaders work a lot better when those deals actually exist before celebrating or trying to implement them. North Korea has been blowing the U.S. off since the summit, leaving denuclearization negotiations at a standstill, and the impatient Trump has been fuming at aides about it.”
Tags: Celebrating, Denuclearization, Impatient, Learning, Negotiations, North Korea, Reality show, Standstill, Summit, Trump, U.S.
Reuters (July 17)
Following the 1986 Iceland Summit between Ronald Reagan and Mikhail Gorbachev, the U.S. ultimately proved the victor. Three decades later, things look different. “Washington had another unparalleled opportunity,” but “the American president was outfoxed by a wily Russian leader playing from a position of unquestioned strength, toying with a deeply damaged counterpart.”
Tags: Damaged, Gorbachev, Iceland, Opportunity, Outfoxed, Putin, Reagan, Strength, Summit, Trump, U.S.
Handelsblatt Global (July 11)
“Donald Trump is in Brussels surrounded by unhappy faces and that’s not just Belgian soccer fans. The US president is attending the summit of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization and the rumble started before the first round of coffee.”
Wall Street Journal (June 12)
“Donald Trump and Kim Jong Un both received what they most wanted from their one-day summit in Singapore on Tuesday…. Whether this photo-op summitry achieved anything beyond the bonhomie is a lot less clear.” There is little indication of real progress. In fact, “if the past is a guide, all of this will be subject to painful and perhaps endless negotiation, and the North will insist on concessions from the U.S. at every stage. Having committed to talks, Mr. Trump will be under pressure to make more concessions lest Kim walk away.”
Tags: Concessions, Kim, Negotiation, North Korea, Photo-op, Progress, Singapore, Summit, Trump, U.S.
The Guardian (April 26)
“There is little chance of a concrete agreement of any kind resulting from the summit” between North Korea’s Kim Jong-un and South Korea’s Moon Jae-in on April 27. “Beginning negotiations with a meeting between the two leaders, before any details have been hammered out, is always risky. The meeting will likely be followed by months, if not years, of negotiations at the lower levels before anything is signed.”
Tags: Agreement, Kim Jong Un, Moon Jae-in, Negotiations, North Korea, Risky, South Korea, Summit
Financial Times (November 12)
An unexpected announcement at the summit in Beijing may jump start efforts to combat climate change. “China and the US have set aside nearly 20 years of discord over how to combat climate change and laid out their respective plans to curb greenhouse gas emissions.” The breakthrough may “galvanise efforts to seal a global climate pact at the end of next year in Paris.”
Tags: Beijing, Breakthrough, China, Climate change, Greenhouse gas emissions, Paris, Summit, U.S.
New York Times (September 2)
“More than anyone, President Vladimir Putin of Russia has set the agenda for NATO’s 65th summit meeting this week, which could well be the most consequential since the Cold War ended.” Ironically, his antics may serve to strengthen NATO. He “has forced on it a new and urgent purpose by effectively invading Ukraine and demonstrating his utter disregard for the international system.”
