Handshakes that shook the world

Powerful gesture that unites rival leaders

SEOUL: When the leaders of North and South Korea reached across the Military Demarcation Line to shake hands, they symbolically – if fleetingly – united a peninsula that has been divided for decades.

The handshake between the two leaders yesterday marked the latest milestone in a rapid rapprochement after months of global fears about a nuclear conflict. Here are some other handshakes that shook the world:

Arafat-Rabin, 1993

After months of secret talks in Norway, Israeli prime minister Yitzhak Rabin and Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat stood in the South Lawn of the White House on Sept 13, 1993 to witness the Oslo Accords signing.

In a highly dramatic moment in the IsraeliPalestinian conflict, they shook hands.

The abortive process granted autonomy to the occupied Palestinian territories without creating a separate state and ended the sixyear-long Intifada uprising.

Obama-Castro, 2013

At a memorial service for Nelson Mandela in 2013, US president Barack Obama 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 ties were restored in July 2015.

Obama visited Cuba in 2016 – the first such trip by an American president in 88 years. Washington also relaxed its decades-long embargo on the communist-ruled island.

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 paramilitary Irish Republican Army (IRA) during the many years of bloody hostilities with British forces.

The IRA wanted an end to British rule in the province. McGuinness, then a deputy first minister of Northern Ireland, shook hands with the Queen during her 2012 visit to the province.

It was a gesture that would once have been unimaginable, with British security operations still a source of anger for many.

Xi-Ma, 2015

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 ever in Singapore.

China’s Xi Jinping and Taiwan’s Ma Yingjeou shook hands and smiled for reporters before holding talks. The summit led to reduced tensions between the self-ruled island and the mainland.

Trump-Kim?

The next major global handshake is expected to feature Kim Jong-un again – this time with US President Donald Trump.

While it will mark a historic moment, handshakes involving Trump sometimes make headlines for the wrong reasons.

Clips of his handshakes often go viral, with netizens poking fun at the way he tries to pull another world leader’s arm or the often uncomfortable amount of time he spends shaking hands.

Quite how Kim might react to an impromptu arm-wrestle, only time will tell.