| | | | America's Ally Is Setting a Trap…for America | | Thank the tireless efforts of South Korean President Moon Jae-in for apparently getting the Trump-Kim summit back on track. There's just one problem with America's Korean Peninsula go-between, the Wall Street Journal editorializes: He has a very different vision for the summit than his US ally.
Moon is "pressing the US to give benefits to North Korea in return for mere steps toward denuclearization. He has adopted the North's position that the negotiations should agree to 'phased and synchronous measures,' meaning the North gets benefits in exchange for incremental steps such as allowing inspectors to visit nuclear sites," the Wall Street Journal argues.
"If Mr. Trump falls into this trap, the North will never give up its nuclear arms. Such talks would lead inevitably to lifting sanctions in return for promises and half-measures. The US tried this approach in the 1990s and again in the 2000s. Each time the Kim family regime violated the deal and continued to build its nuclear and missile programs." - Another sign the summit is back on? North Korea has dispatched Kim Yong Chul, vice-chairman of the Party Central Committee, for potential talks in the United States.
Per CNN: "On his arrival in the US, Kim would be the most senior official to visit the United States since 2000, when Vice Marshal Jo Myong Rok traveled to Washington to meet with then-President Bill Clinton in the Oval Office. Madeleine Albright, who was Secretary of State at the time, traveled to North Korea later that month."
| | Guess Who Wants to See Trump (Keep) Talking With Kim? | | | China has a strong interest in seeing the Singapore talks between President Trump and Kim Jong Un back on, writes Minxin Pei for the Nikkei Asian Review. The emphasis being on talking. "For Beijing, the optimal outcome of a Trump-Kim summit is an ambiguous agreement that reduces short-term tensions but drags out the 'denuclearization' process endlessly and inconclusively. This would, for an extended period, freeze Kim's nuclear and missile tests and forestall any American preemptive attack on North Korea," Pei writes. "To be sure, China will be watchful for signs of betrayal by Kim. But the formula of negotiation—phased and synchronized measures by both sides—ensures that the process will take a long time and eventually fail to produce the 'complete, irreversible and verifiable denuclearization' demanded by the US." | | Want to Save the Global Order? Think Smaller | | | The US, China and Russia seem intent on setting the old rules-based order aflame. But don't despair, the international order isn't dead yet, writes Gideon Rachman for the Financial Times. We just need to start thinking a little smaller.
"It is time for an informal alliance of middle-sized powers that are interested in supporting a global rules-based order. Individually, these nations cannot ensure the survival of the World Trade Organization, or sustain international human-rights law or global environmental standards. But, collectively, they have a chance of working together to preserve a world based around rules and rights, rather than power and force," Rachman writes.
"A six-nation group—in descending order of population size—could include Japan, Germany, Britain, France, Canada and Australia. They are all rich democracies, which means they are likely to have similar interests and values. They are all big trading nations. They all have real military capacity and (with the exception of Japan) a willingness to deploy forces overseas. And they share an interest in international rules that go beyond trade and investment, but also encompass the defense of international human rights standards." | | Italy Could Tear Europe Apart | | In blocking a cabinet pick by Italian Prime Minister-designate Giuseppe Conte, the country's president has "sparked a constitutional crisis and populist outrage," CNN's Tim Lister writes. That sets the stage for a second general election this year—and a battle that could tear the European Union apart, suggests Silvia Marchetti for CNN Opinion.
"The next vote is bound to turn into a proxy referendum between pro-Europe/pro-euro mainstream forces, and the antagonist alliance of the two populist parties that won the most votes in March—the League and the Five Star Movement," Marchetti writes.
"But what if at the next elections these two parties secure an even larger share of votes?
"Such a result in Italy, one of the founding members of the European Union, would likely lead to this anti-EU sentiment spreading further throughout Europe, threatening European unity at a very delicate moment."
| | Team Trump Is Mishandling the Most Important US Relationship | | The United States is mismanaging its most important relationship, James Fallows writes for The Atlantic. It's time for Team Trump to put away the megaphone.
"No other nation outside North America is as tightly integrated with US corporate production, consumption, distribution, and marketing systems. While Russia still has many more nuclear weapons, no other country could even dream of becoming an across-the-board military rival to the United States, as China might," Fallows writes.
"If you want to see the worst and least cooperative side of Chinese leadership, give them a set of in-public ultimatums, and demand that they comply. No government likes to be seen as bowing to foreign pressure—and China's government likes it even less than most, and likes it less now than at some other times, given the prevailing impression that China is on the rise and that US leadership is in disarray."
| | US steel and aluminum tariffs are set to go into effect from Friday. Per The Wall Street Journal's Emre Peker: "The European Union's top trade official will meet US counterparts in Paris on Wednesday, according to EU officials, in a last-ditch effort to secure waivers […] and to engage Washington on efforts to tackle China's market-distorting policies."
Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross is expected to head to China for trade talks Saturday. His visit will come after the Trump administration announced Tuesday that it would impose "25% tariffs on $50 billion worth of goods from China, and place new limits on Chinese investments in US high-tech industries," CNN reports. | | | | | | |
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