APD REVIEW | Trump ＆ Putin at G20: Honeymoon ends, life has to go on

By APD Writer Wang Peng

Today, at the G20 Summit Hamburg, a strange 'couple' who have been suffered endless quarrels and struggles for a long time, came together and shook hands eventually.

How can people imagine that just half a year ago, when Donald Trump came to power, it seemed that the long icebound period since the Crimean crisis during the Obama Administration would be broken by ‘I Just Twitter To Say I Love You’ between Kremlin and the White House?

But now, thanks to the ‘contributions’ made by the Pro-Establishment in both countries, the once ‘Trumped’ Russia-America relations have returned to normal, fulfilled with mutual strategic suspicions and geopolitical interest contention.

This background above may partially explain why Trump and Putin’s hands shaking have attracted too much attention from the world media. As the old Chinese idiom said, ‘Honeymoon ended but the life still have to go on’.

When the bubble of American-Russian reconciliation burst, what can they expect from each other for their strategic interactions? And what can the world expect them to make for the global peacekeeping and economy cooperation?

As reported, Trump and Putin held a 2-hour long closed-door consultations on a series of issues, including but not limited to Syria civil war, Ukrainian situation, DPRK nuclear weapons, cyber security and so forth. Their summit was initially arranged as just 30 minutes, but finally it was extended to 2 hours.

When they were leaving, both Trump and Putin show their satisfaction on their ‘private’ conversation. What is more, it is widely believed that they have reached an agreement about ceasing fire in south Syria since July 9th.

In addition, as the author predicted in his alive interview by China Global Television Network (CGTN) two days ago, despite of a lot of strategic conflicts and the troubles made by Pro-Establishment forces in both countries, if Trump and Putin can play a more constructive role and abandon the dual standard in terrorists organizations recognition, they may still find a larger room of cooperation and mutual trust promotion.

Now both of them wisely chose the correct key to open the door leading to the peace of Syria after 6 years of bloody civil war. What should be appreciated is their pragmatism which put ideological considerations and mutual stereotypes aside and select the most practical and workable approach to solve real problems.

For example, they both percept and accept the reality that now there are three major powers in Syrian peace progress, namely, the Syrian Government backed up by Russians, Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) supported by Americans, and Free Syrian Army (FSA) that sheltered by Turkey. The Bashar al-Assad Camp and FSA gradually interflows since Moscow and Ankara reached substantive progress in reconciliation and strategic cooperation during recent years.

So under these changing circumstances, America and its ally FSA accordingly adjust their objective from the initial strategic goal that aims to overthrow Bashar and establish a new regime in Syria to a multilateral consultation and resolution. The latest agreement of ceasing fire is the result and contribution of this wise strategic compromise.

The American-Russian compromise and southern Syrian cease fire agreement are undoubtedly the gospel to the local people who have been seared in the flames of bloody civil war for more than 6 years. However, by contrast, for the ‘saint Jihadists’ of IS, it is a nightmare, sounding the death knell.

Dr. Wang Peng, Research Fellow at Charhar Institute, Lecturer at the China Institute of Fudan University.

(ASIA PACIFIC DAILY)