Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe is currently in the United States, and met with President Trump — but domestic problems have kept him from joining in on the diplomacy efforts with North Korea. The situation in Yemen is deteriorating further, as new health epidemics threaten to break out because of multidrug resistance. Meanwhile, Emmanuel Macron’s emergence as the new face of the West will be cemented when he visits the US later in April.
Is Japan left out?
“Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe is alarmed by diplomatic developments related to the denuclearisation of North Korea and is desperate to get involved in the talks so he can sabotage them,” writes Jeff Kingston in the South China Morning Post. Japan was conspicuously absent from the activity surrounding North Korea recently.
“Abe’s heralded bromance with Trump is on the rocks,” Kingston declares. “It was Trump’s abrupt volte face regarding talks with North Korea that left Abe chagrined and isolated. He was comprehensively outmanoeuvred and upstaged by South Korean President Moon Jae-in’s diplomacy and was marginalised by the summitry of the North Korean leader, who first met South Korean envoys, then China’s President Xi Jinping, and plans to meet Moon on April 27 and then Trump in May or June.”
“It was a bitter pill for Abe to watch Seoul’s envoys announce to the world from the portico of the White House that Trump had agreed to meet with Kim, after trying so hard to be his Asian interlocutor. Abe had remained steadfast in his hardline anti-dialogue stance and thought he was on the same page as Trump – until he wasn’t.”
“So while Moon’s peace express is steaming out of the station with everyone scrambling to get aboard, Abe wants to push the emergency stop button on this diplomacy,” he writes. “In doing so, he offers Trump a useful escape hatch, enabling him to say he tried diplomacy and blame Kim while resuming the fire-and-fury brinkmanship that he and his new advisers are more comfortable with. US Secretary of Defence James Mattis will have his hands full as the remaining adult supervisor to see what this window of opportunity offers.”
A health crisis in Yemen
“The Saudi-led bombing campaign in Yemen has produced thousands of casualties and created vast numbers of refugees. But the real cost may not become apparent for years to come. After years of bombardment that has crippled the food supply, destroyed basic infrastructure and disrupted medical care, Yemen has become a breeding ground for antibiotic-resistant disease, with potentially catastrophic consequences — and not just for Yemen,” writes Sam Loewenberg in the New York Times.
“The conflict is taking on aspects of warfare once found only in history books, when the real toll of a military campaign is not the immediate damage from weapons, but the long-term and far greater impact of disease that spread in the chaos of armed conflict.”
Multidrug resistance is becoming a prevalent issue in the Middle East, with countries like Iraq, Syria and Jordan facing the issue. “Before the war, Yemen had a functioning, if fragile, health system. The war destroyed it, along with the country’s water and sanitation infrastructure. Many small children are not even getting routine vaccinations. Nearly 18 million people are hungry, with many close to famine levels. By conservative estimates, 10,000 civilians have been killed, with 52,000 more wounded — fertile ground for drug resistance.”
“Diseases from the 19th century have re-emerged in force. Yemen faces the fastest-growing cholera outbreak ever recorded, with more than one million people affected, a quarter of them small children. Diphtheria has emerged as well.”
The new face of the West
“When Emmanuel Macron arrives at the White House this month for the first state visit by a foreign leader during President Trump’s administration, the encounter will serve as a stark reminder that the fate of the Western alliance now lies in the hands of one of history’s oddest diplomatic couples,” writes William Drozdiak in the Washington Post.
He’s referring to Macron and Trump, who have distinctly different styles. “And yet, improbably enough, the two personalities have bonded in ways their predecessors never did.”
“Trump speaks to Macron at least once or twice a week on a wide range of subjects — more often than with any other leader. The two presidents share the status of political outsiders who never previously held elected office and have thoroughly disrupted the traditional ruling establishments in their countries.”
European leaders have allegedly begun to refer to Macron as the “Trump Whisperer”. “Trump’s esteem for Macron has elevated France’s clout. Despite Germany’s economic power, France enjoys superior status as a recognized nuclear power and one of five permanent members of the U.N. Security Council. While Trump has often attacked Germany for its mercantilist trade policy, he has shown appreciation for France’s military cooperation. Under Macron, French troops have become America’s most active military ally in the fight against the Islamic State in Syria, Iraq and Africa,” Drozdiak writes.
“Macron also wants to invigorate the European Union as a global power and spurn the populist nationalism that threatens to undermine its success in building peaceful and prosperous relations among former adversaries. But he also realizes that France and Europe can achieve such ambitions only in tandem with the United States — which makes his strange bedfellow in the White House so crucial to his agenda.”