Make summits great again, Mr. President
by Washington Examiner
August 01, 2018 12:00 AM History may have good things to say about President Trump’s summit meetings with foreign adversaries. But that is only likely to be so if he uses them sparingly, with preconditions that act as leverage, and with strong enforcement to hold foreign leaders to their word.
This would be a change.
On Monday, Trump said he is willing to meet Iranian President Hassan Rouhani without preconditions “at any time.†A meeting at some point in the future may be of value, but not now. Successive summits of questionable substance with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, Russian President Vladimir Putin, and Rouhani would be an eye-popping trifecta.
A lesson that Trump needs to learn from his summits in Singapore with the North Korean tyrant, and in Helsinki with the Russian dictator, is that a meeting with the American president is much sought after because it is highly valuable, and must not be sold cheaply. A meeting with Rouhani must occur only if it caps a real change of heart by Tehran, and does not reward the malignant mullah's bluster on the international stage.
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https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/opinion/editorials/make-summits-great-again-mr-president
