The Trump-Kim Summit: Is “attitude” more important than preparation?

• Main Author: ALEXANDER, Nadja
• Format: text
• Language: English
• Published: Institutional Knowledge at Singapore Management University 2018
• Subjects: Dispute Resolution and Arbitration; State and Local Government Law
• Online Access: https://ink.library.smu.edu.sg/sol_research/2774; https://ink.library.smu.edu.sg/context/sol_research/article/4732/viewcontent/The_Trump_Kim_Summit__Is_attitude_more_important_than_preparation.pdf
• Institution: Singapore Management University

Here in Singapore, along with the rest of the world, we await the Trump-Kim Summit scheduled for Tuesday 12 June. What can we expect? While we may have learned to expect the unexpected from these two leaders, Donald Trump and Kim Jong-Un, recent media reports have highlighted one apparently predictable feature of Trump’s negotiation approach. As a CNN reporter framed it: “Trump picks ‘attitude’ over prep work ahead of Singapore summit”. In relation to the Summit, Trump has reportedly said, it is about attitude not preparation. Earlier this year as he rejected Japan’s proposal for a tripartite co-ordination of the proposed Summit, Trump apparently told Prime Minister Shinzo Abe that he prefers to follow his “gut” rather than formal preparations.