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Monday, April 30, 2018

Handshakes that shook the world

The Moon-Kim handshake was historic by all means at the Korean Summit April 27,2018

North Korean Leader Kim Jong Un (L) and South Korean President Moon Jae-in (R) shake hands over the military demarcation line upon meeting for the Inter-Korean Summit on April 27, 2018 in Panmunjom, South Korea

PANMUNJOM, SOUTH KOREA - APRIL 27: North Korean Leader Kim Jong Un (L) and South Korean President Moon Jae-in (R) shake hands over the military demarcation line upon meeting for the Inter-Korean Summit on April 27, 2018 in Panmunjom, South Korea. Kim and Moon meet at the border today for the third-ever inter-Korean summit talks after the 1945 division of the peninsula, and first since 2007 between then President Roh Moo-hyun of South Korea and Leader Kim Jong-il of North Korea. (Photo by Pool/Getty Images)
 


 But it wasn’t the first handshake that shaped history.

Some other handshakes that made history:

ARAFAT-RABIN, 1993

arafat 


* In Sept 1993, in one of the most dramatic moments in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, Israeli PM Yitzhak Rabin and Palestine’s Yasser Arafat — with US President Bill Clinton’s arms stretched around them — shook hands.

* The meet yielded autonomy for occupied Palestinian lands, and ended its bloody uprising — the Intifada. Two years later, Rabin was killed by a Jewish extremist opposed to the process. A fresh Intifada broke out in 2000.

OBAMA-CASTRO, 2013

 



obama

* At a memorial service for Nelson Mandela in 2013, US President Obama made headlines when he shook hands with Cuba’s Raul Castro, the first such public greeting between leaders of the bitter neighbours after decades of enmity.

* Within months, there was a rapid thaw. Full diplomatic relations were restored in July 2015, followed by once-unthinkable steps to mend ties after more than half a century of enmity.

QUEEN ELIZABETH-MCGUINNESS, 2012

In a landmark moment in the Northern Ireland peace process, Britain’s Queen Elizabeth II met Martin McGuinness, a former top commander in the Irish Republican Army(IRA) He wanted end to British rule in the province, which was a cause for much bloodshed in the region.

XI-MA, 2015

Xi

After decades of estrangement following a traumatic split at the end of a civil war in 1949, the presidents of China and Taiwan met for the first time in Singapore. In unprecedented scenes, China’s Xi Jinping and Taiwan’s Ma Ying-jeou shook hands for more than a minute and smiled for reporters before holding talks. The summit led to the setting up of a hotline between Beijing and Taipei and a lowering of tensions.
 


 

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