Good News - For Once - As Curtain Comes Down on G-20

Save for a refusing to budge on climate change, U.S. President Donald Trump left the G-20 in Osaka with something a bit unusual for him: some good news.

"When the character of a man is not clear to you, look at his friends."

So goes a Japanese proverb. It's fitting, then, to review what's come out of the G-20 Summit in Osaka, Japan, this past weekend, based on how the men and women in attendance got along.

Having gone into the two-day summit calling the other 19 members of the group his "competitors," U.S. President Donald Trump came out of it having patched things up with Chinese President Xi Jinping.

He had a laugh with Russian President Vladimir Putin.

He said Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman is a "good friend."

And, now that he has landed in Seoul to my north, he wants to shake hands with North Korean dictator Kim Jong-un at the Korean DMZ.

So he made some friends in the end. Among democratically elected world leaders, he also had a good time with Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe.

It was the Xi-Trump meeting on Saturday that stole the show. The two men tried their best to put on pained expressions over their handshake, which was more of a draw than a "win" for either man, although Trump did slap Xi on the back before they sat down.

They had an 80-minute meeting, after which Trump said trade relations are "right back on track, and we'll see what happens."

In other words, the summit ended on a good note, thanks in no small part to one particularly prolific tweeter.

Two Possible Outcomes

There are two key outcomes. The United States will not, for now, impose any further sanctions on Chinese goods, with Trump having ordered the U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer to ready them on another US$300 billion in shipments. That would have put big import duties on basically all Chinese goods, and won't now apply to the final batch.

 

"We're holding back on tariffs, and they're going to buy farm products," Trump said, without adding any details. "If we make a deal, it will be a very historic event," he added, saying there's no rush. "I want to get it right."

 

The other notable decision is that Trump said that U.S. companies could start selling products to electronics maker Huawei Technologies again. Alphabet's Google ( GOOGL) and Microsoft ( MSFT)  have restricted sales of their software and parts to the company, arguably China's most-successful international brand.

 

Huawei had already announced that its Honor 20 series of smartphones will be getting the upcoming Android Q update from Google. But the U.S. search-n-software giant will now presumably restore all communications with the Chinese communications company.

 

Xi told Trump that both "China and the United States both benefit from cooperation, and lose in a confrontation." The Chinese leader said he wanted to restore "a China-U.S. relationship based on coordination, cooperation and stability."

 

None of those three characteristics sound like Trump's strong suits. But I think we can conclude that both men will direct their underlings to get talks going again, after they ran into a dead end.

Meet Me At The DMZ!(?)

Trump headed from Osaka to the South Korean capital for the next stop on his Asian trip. On his way, he issued a last-minute invite by tweet to the leader a little to the north.

 

"If Chairman Kim of North Korea sees this, I would meet him at the Border/DMZ just to shake his hand, and say Hello(?)"

 

It's sudden, but it looks like Kim will go for it. Trump heads to the border on Sunday.

 

A North Korean spokesman said the offer of a third face-to-face meeting between the two men is "a very interesting suggestion." North Korea is awaiting a formal invitation, but feels if that comes, it's a "meaningful occasion" to deepen the "personal relations between the two leaders" and advance bilateral relations.

After some very important meetings, including my meeting with President Xi of China, I will be leaving Japan for South Korea (with President Moon). While there, if Chairman Kim of North Korea sees this, I would meet him at the Border/DMZ just to shake his hand and say Hello(?)!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) June 28, 2019

Chairman Kim seems to have little to lose. What a photo opp, to be on par with the "leader of the free world," shaking hands across the world's most-militarized border.

Putin and Trump had a laugh about next year's U.S. presidential showdown. Trump grinned and put on a mock serious voice, telling Putin, "Don't meddle in the election, President."

Putin said he has invited Trump to visit him in Moscow next May. That would be to honor the 75 ^thanniversary of Russia's defeat of Nazi Germany in World War II. Trump said he's giving it "very serious consideration."

Putin said his get-together with Trump was a "good meeting, business-like, pragmatic," and that the two men must for their nations "somehow find the strength to turn the page and move forward."

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