The US President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong-un signed a joint agreement during the much-hyped Singapore summit in which Pyongyang committed to commit its efforts towards the complete denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula. Meanwhile, President Trump conceded that the US would refrain from holding war games with South Korea. However, the economic sanctions are to still remain in place.
‘The Singapore summit statement is essentially aspirational: no definitions of denuclearization, no timelines; no details as to verification. What is most troubling about all this is that the United States gave up something tangible, namely, US-South Korea military exercises, in exchange,’ states CFR President Richard N. Haass in a tweet on his official page.
In an interview with the Nikkei Asian Review, Ji-Young Lee states: ‘In its quest for autonomy and non-interference by outside powers, a unified Korea may decide to terminate the alliance with Washington, viewing American troops as the antithesis to Korean national identity and unity. Under this scenario, a unified Korea that takes a decidedly pro-China approach to its foreign and security policy can be a sign of post-US primacy in Asia.’
‘Kim Jong-un does not appear to have reciprocated US concessions. This is concerning given North Korea’s track record of pocketing concessions rather than delivering quid pro quos,’ writes Scott A. Snyder of the Council on Foreign Relations.
‘A nuclear agreement with North Korea is not a single transaction—or if it is, it will fail. It must be the start of an effort to change relations between our two countries, and to change the relationship between the regime in North Korea and both the international system and its own people,’ opines Elliott Abrams in his article for the Council on Foreign Relations.
A Saudi-led coalition Arabia launched an assault last week to oust Houthi rebels from Hodeidah which is considered to be the gateway for most of Yemen’s aid. It is also believed to be a home to almost 600,000 people, raising fears of an aggravated humanitarian crisis. Saudi Arabia, which backs the government of exiled President Hadi, has accused the Iran-backed rebels of using the port to smuggle weapons.
‘The Saudis intervened in the war three years ago with hopes of a quick victory over the Houthis, who Riyadh says are backed by Iran, but they have instead been dragged into a quagmire. With the assault on Hudaydah, they apparently hope to isolate the rebels, cutting off their supplies of weapons, food and other essentials,’ Margaret Coker states in an article for the New York Times.
‘The fighting will discourage rather than enable a return to the negotiating table. Yemen will fall even deeper into what is already the world’s worst humanitarian crisis,’ says the International Crisis Group in its analysis on the website.
‘The Houthis have longstanding ties to Iran—something that helped to spur the Saudi-led coalition’s entry into the conflict into the first place. The potential of regional escalation has been underlined by the recent spate of missile attacks on Saudi Arabia, which the coalition blames on Iran,’ writes Adam Baron of the European Council on Foreign Relations.
The leaders of Ethiopia and Egypt vowed on Sunday to iron out their differences over a dam Addis Ababa is building on the Nile River that Cairo fears threatens its water supplies. Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed, in Cairo for talks with Egyptian President Abdel Fatah al-Sisi, said Egypt’s share of Nile water will be preserved as his country pushes ahead with construction of the Grand Renaissance Dam, a USD four billion hydroelectric power project
The fast deployment of an experimental vaccine and effective management of confirmed Ebola cases were behind the stabilization of an outbreak in the country’s northwest region, according to the Head of the WHO in the Democratic Republic of Congo. 27 people have died in the outbreak as of yet.
The future of the US role in the G-7 forum was thrown into doubt over the weekend as Washington and its allies continued a war of words following a summit concluded in Quebec. US President Donald J. Trump refused to sign a joint communiqué that called on G-7 countries to strive to reduce trade barriers and labelled Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau as ‘very dishonest and weak’. Germany and France vowed to stand fast by the joint statement, with French President Emmanuel Macron saying that world leaders should be ‘serious and worthy of our people’.
‘Trump seems amazed to discover that the European Union (gross domestic product: USD 17.1 trillion), Japan (USD 4.8 trillion) and Canada (USD 1.6 trillion)—which together produce more than the United States (USD 19.3 trillion)—will not be pushed around as easily as the contractors he has gotten used to stiffing,’ opines Max Boot in his piece for the Washington Post.
‘The isolation of the United States serves to reinforce China’s narrative that the United States is an unreliable partner, and it helps advance Beijing’s goals of weakening governance mechanisms like the G-7 that don’t include China,’ Bonnie S. Glaser states in an analysis for the New York Times.
‘While polls show that opposition to tariffs is strong, both Trump and Bernie Sanders made waves during the 2016 primaries arguing that the United States has been badly served in its negotiations with foreign nations,’ as per Jay Cost’s article for the National Review.
In a world first, the Australian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) will launch an independent national inquiry into sexual harassment in the workplace. The 12-month investigation will be carried out by the sex discrimination commissioner, Kate Jenkins. Ms. Jenkins said the inquiry would follow on from the #MeToo movement, which helped shine a light on the prevalence of women being sexually harassed and assaulted.
Australians’ trust in the US to ‘act responsibly in the world’ has plummeted to its lowest level yet, according to an annual poll of Australian attitudes to the world, with the presidency of Donald Trump acutely impacting their perception of their country’s key security ally. The Lowy Institute poll shows that since 2011 faith in the US to act responsibly has fallen from 83 to 55 per cent, while only 30 per cent of Australians have confidence in Trump’s foreign policy.
The US is imposing tariffs of 25 per cent on almost USD 50 billion worth of Chinese goods, according to a statement from the White House. However, no specific time was specified for the new measure to take effect. Several rounds of talks between Washington and Beijing have failed to resolve US complaints over its USD 375 billion trade deficit with China. Ahead of the Friday announcement, China’s foreign ministry said that Beijing will ‘take necessary measures to defend our legitimate rights and interests’ and retaliate against US protectionism.
‘China is by far the biggest test. Unlike the other trade fights, US business has been encouraging President Trump, hoping that the new approach might persuade Beijing to tackle the growing problems they face in China over intellectual property, forced technology transfer, and investment restrictions,’ opines Edward Alden of the Council on Foreign Relations.
‘The plan to proceed with tariffs has split the president’s closest advisers, some who believe they are necessary measures to force China to reform, and others who fear the fallout from a trade war and have been pushing for a negotiated solution,’ Ana Swanson states in an article for the New York Times.
‘Even though econometric models suggest a trade war will not significantly cut global growth, there is a real danger that investors are underestimating the impact of those deadweight losses, and a world with vastly different rules,’ writes Megan Greene for the Financial Times.