ABC News Online: Why did Donald Trump announce Vietnam as host of the second North Korea summit?
During his State of the Union address, President Donald Trump announced that Vietnam would host his second summit with North Korea's Kim Jong-un — a move that some pundits view as Hanoi's bid to buttress itself against encroaching Chinese power.
Washington's goal for the late February talks is for North Korea to agree give up its nuclear weapons, but Pyongyang wants the Korean peninsula rid of nuclear weapons all together — including the US's arsenal stationed in South Korea.
The decision to stage the summit in Vietnam, a state that has communist rule and a free market economy in co-existence, has potent symbolic potential in an era of changing regional power dynamics.
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Commentaries, Analysis, And Editorials -- February 6, 2019
Trump to meet Kim in Vietnam as envoys thrash out issues -- Andrew Salmon, Asia Times
Getting a better outcome from the second Trump-Kim summit -- Robert E. Kelly, The Interpreter
China's Slowdown Is Hitting Where It Hurts: Employment -- Yu Zhongxin, The Diplomat
China Turned Upside Down -- Weijian Shan, Foreign Affairs
Preparing for a “Decent Chance” of Success and Failure with North Korea -- Patrick M. Cronin and Kristine Lee, 38 North
Donald Trump's audacious claims on North Korea are the hardest to reject -- John Barron, Al Jazeera
North Korea and America’s Second Summit: We Asked 76 Experts to Predict the Results -- National Interest
‘Tired’ Taliban fights on as US is desperate to leave Afghanistan -- Bill Roggio, Long War Journal
Mixed feelings in Afghanistan over US-Taliban talks -- Al Jazeera
Trump says 'it's time' to end Afghan war - can he? -- AFP
The Trump Administration Is Right to Seek a Peace Deal in Afghanistan -- Paul R. Pillar, National Interest
Top Foreign Policy Takeaways From Trump's SOTU -- R. Gramer & A. Mackinnon, Foreign Policy
Trump Shows Why He Can’t Be Counted Out -- Peter Beinart, The Atlantic
Germany plans military spending hike, but is it enough to appease NATO? -- Austin Davis & Maximiliane Koschyk, DW
Backing Maduro could be costly for Moscow -- Giovanni Pigni, Asia Times
Using Huawei technology is a matter of faith -- Andreas Becker, DW
1 comment:
Like Singapore, where they met last time, Vietnam is a very secure place," Mr Hiebert said.
Sorry that's BS on a whole new level. Been to Vietnam and Singapore more than 50 times. It is very to get illegal goods even people into Vietnam. Very easy. Money goes a long way there and for $500 you wouldn't believe what's possible. And not much convincing to do either. Very common in Vietnam even at the larger airports still. Singapore on the other hand has some of the best security in the world and their airport is ranked #1 in the world for several years consecutively now. Singapore 's staff is also really good at detecting threats and is well trained in counter terror for instance. I was at a Vietnamese airport just a few weeks back and there was a loud explosion like sound and no protocol in place. No security sweep. People just looking around dumbfounded. And drugs come in all the time.
Vietnam is not safe in this regard. Very easy to bring weapons in and their security checks are terribly flawed. Often not even shoes are checked and metal detectors not working. It's a joke. The one thing I didn't like about Vietnam is their airport security. That said, day to day life is actually very safe in Vietnam. Homicide rates much lower than in the US for example and you can feel it. Even in HCMC (their largest city) it is a very very safe atmosphere. But in terms of counterterror and capacity to secure large areas, and reliably, Vietnam is nowhere close to Singapore, both in terms of training and protocols, and technology wise. Miles behind Singapore. Singapore is in the top10-top20 security (crowd control, military police force, special forces etc) easily. Vietnam is like place 100 or worse out of less than 200 countries :))
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