Biden to sign strategic partnership deal with Vietnam

[PeterRS]

38 minutes ago, Tomtravel said:

Trump and Russia is an interesting case

Indeed! And has anyone yet discovered what he and Putin discussed during their 2-hour meeting in Helsinki in 2018, uniquely for a US President without any advisers present - merely an interpreter? When one reporter asked at the ensuing media conference if the Russians had interfered with the 2016 election as all Trump's intelligence agencies had claimed, Trump disagreed. According to him in front of the world's media, Putin had "just said it's not Russia. I will say this: I don't see any reason why it would be."

Was Ukraine discussed? Did Trump say he'd turn a blind eye to further Russian incursions? Only the interpreters know.

[Tomtravel]

Drama like in a gay bar!😀

[PeterRS]

1 hour ago, floridarob said:

Wonder when Biden will try to have relations with Cuba like Obama started to do ....and then  Trump shut everything down to stay in Putin's good graces.

I wrote quite some time ago about the US political system and how the four year Presidential cycle really should be changed given the present state of the world. One President does one thing. The next reverses course and changes it. That has happened several times.

Throughout his Presidency starting from his first year in office, Clinton examined ways of involving North Korea in talks in the hope of coming to some nuclear agreement. By his last year, considerable progress had been made that he even sent Madeleine Albright to Pyongyang. Earler he had established the Trilateral Co-ordination and Oversight Group along with Japan and South Korea specifically to move forward on North Korean relations.

According to documents declassified in 2020, some time before her visit Albright had described Kim Jong Il as "strange, moody and hypersensitive." After meeting him in October 2000, her view had changed. Now she saw him as more "practical, pragmatic, decisive and non-ideological" than the US had earlier realised. She discussed her findings with the Japanese and South Korean leaders. President Kim agreed to use his influence with Chairman Kim to find ways of continuing to improve relations with North Korea. Clinton then wrote of his intention to remove North Korea from the list of nations supporting terrorism.

George Bush soon assumed office, abandoned all talks and called out North Korea as part of an "axis of evil!" A total about turn and a total collapse of any form of co-operation.

That said, I have lots of say about the poitical systems in other countries, especially my own - the UK. But this post follows on the point made about Cuba and the US.

[KeepItReal]

5 hours ago, PeterRS said:

Indeed! And has anyone yet discovered what he and Putin discussed during their 2-hour meeting in Helsinki in 2018, uniquely for a US President without any advisers present - merely an interpreter? When one reporter asked at the ensuing media conference if the Russians had interfered with the 2016 election as all Trump's intelligence agencies had claimed, Trump disagreed. According to him in front of the world's media, Putin had "just said it's not Russia. I will say this: I don't see any reason why it would be."

Was Ukraine discussed? Did Trump say he'd turn a blind eye to further Russian incursions? Only the interpreters know.

Oh, don't forget, former president Trump is not the only (Republican) president that got a little too close to Putin, for comfort. Remember in 2001 when former president Bush met with him? 

“I looked the man in the eye. I found him to be very straightforward and trustworthy,” Bush said. “I was able to get a sense of his soul.”