Najam in VOA on Trump’s Asia Diplomacy

Adil Najam, inaugural dean on the Pardee School of Global Studies at Boston University, was interviewed by the Voice of America for its Urdu service television news show View 360 on a new thrust of diplomacy in Asia by the Trump administration. The interview touched on U.S. diplomatic moves related to North Korea, to the Taliban in Afghanistan, and to Pakistan. The interview was broadcast on March 9, 2018.

On the possibility of a meeting between U.S. President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong-un, Najam said that such a meeting, if actually held, would indeed be historic. However, both leaders are so unpredictable and erratic, he said, that the real question remains whether the meeting would actually be held. “There is many a slip, between the cup and the lip,” Najam suggested.

Najam also commented on new moves by the U.S. administration to place large bounties on Taliban leaders and a Pakistani court reversing the decision to ban a political party that supports Hafiz Saeed. He suggested that while the bounty is an important signal, its real implication is that U.S.A. and Pakistan are continuing their talks and despite very cold relations between the two, there are still attempts to make headway. On the Hafiz Saeed issue, he suggested that decisions by Pakistani courts should not be seen as being synonymous with the will of the Pakistan government. Especially, in a context where the courts have just removed the Pakistani Prime Minister. Both Pakistan and the U.S. should focus on producing real evidence to place before the courts, without which little headway can be made in the judicial setting.