Trump - Putin Summit was a huge opportunity that got wasted

US President Trump and Russian President Putin
addressing a joint Press Conference after the two leaders met
and discussed over issues for almost 90 minutes today.

The two most important men on the planet just met. The first one is the head of a country which has been considered as the police of the whole world since about 7 decades now, viz. the USA. The other one is considered as their sharp rivals and challengers in terms of power and the magnitude of strength, viz. Russia. Together they possess 90% of the most deadly nuclear arsenal in the world. After fighting under one banner against Hitler and Mussolini in World War II, they have gone through various phases of hostility and friendliness in the last 73 years. However mostly the phase of hostility which began since Putin came to power in the year 2000 has lasted quite long now. Both have immense military strengths and the world starts watching both of them very eagerly, when either one makes any serious statement, as it has strong implications and an extremely volatile security situation starts developing, as soon as these two countries take opposite sides.

Their leaders right now are however looking to be "much thinking on the same lines", as compared to a situation before 2 years when Obama was the President of USA. Putin and Obama just could not manage to think similarly. Trump and Putin too have their own differences. Trump is about 6 inches taller than Putin is. Putin has been in power for 18 years now whereas Trump is a novice compared to him with just 1 and half years of experience of being in power. Both are very rich but Trump is one of the richest man in the world. Both are highly competitive when it comes to deal-making. Trump has his own businessman style, whereas Putin has his own professional style of an experienced, hard-core politician. Both have this immense power to just annihilate the entire 7.2 billion human population on the surface of the planet, by the switch of a button. So when the leaders of these two countries meet, the expectations automatically soar to very high levels. Putin has seen, talked and negotiated with 3 US Presidents before Trump, viz. Bill Clinton, George W.Bush and Barack Obama. Trump is the third one to come in the same pair of shoes before him. Whereas for Donald Trump it was the first occasion to meet and talk with a Russian President personally. The meeting between the two was expected to last for about 45 to 60 minutes but it lasted for an hour and a half, which shows that both men may have developed a liking for each other! Trump called the meeting as a "good start". After the meeting there was this all important Press Conference, which contained journalists from all around the globe. Very tricky, personal and quite unpleasant questions could have been asked. But as I watched the entire presser, it was a much milder one than expected. I wonder why no journalist asked one very vital question to the either side:- "The solution to the grave genocide situation in Syria is simple - Just stop supplying arms and ammunitions to the warring opposite sides over there. The US has been supplying arms to the Free Syrian Rebels and the Russians have been doing so to the Syrian Army commanded by their President Bashar Asad. When are these two super powers going to stop supplying arms to the two opposite parties?" - That would have been a question for which both the leaders would have found themselves grappling for a solution and would be scratching their heads for that. But surprisingly and unfortunately, nobody asked this question to either of the leaders!!🤔 About 400,000 people have died in the last 7 years of heavy civil war in Syria. The syrian govt. under Asad has been heavily bombarding their own citizens under the pretext of killing the so-called terrorists hidden inside buildings. Cities like Mosul, Rakka and Damascus have been converted into graveyards. Thousands of innocent children, women and men have been mercilessly massacred in this unabated spree of violence over these 2500 plus days. But no one is coming to a rescue to bring an end to this crisis!! The UN has been urging US and Russia to stop the supply of arms but with no result at all. The situation is such that this figure of 400 thousand deaths can still swell and become much bigger in the next few years. It can go up to 1 million people brutally killed by 2025, if this continues till then (let us pray to God Almighty that this does not happen). I think this summit was an ideal opportunity for both the leaders to come to a permanent solution to the syrian crisis, by signing a joint agreement of non-proliferation and gradual decline of the extremely confrontational position which both these countries have taken in Syria. This non-confrontational position would mean a gradual end to the syrian crisis, once and forever. But unfortunately the two leaders have wasted this huge opportunity. All other negotiations and their successful conclusions would have looked quite small in magnitude, if this deal had been struck between Putin and Trump. This was the only way in which thousands of humans could possibly have been saved from imminent deaths in Syria. Looking from this aspect, this summit was a failure. -(kb/Original/16-7-2018/1)