Cuba is
only 90 miles from Florida, USA. But for almost half a century, the distance
between the two countries appeared a lot more. Driven by a policy rooted in the
Cold War, the US severed all diplomatic ties with Cuba for more than 50 years.
But that changed on March 2016, when US President Barack Obama stepped
out of a two-hour meeting with his Cuban counterpart Raul Castro in Havana. The
cordial handshake that followed was historic – symbolic of crashing barriers and an improved economic tie between the two neighbours. It wasn’t the
first of its kind. Check out some other momentous handshakes and embraces that
were talked about globally as well as locally: [Updated on July 2018]
Patriarch Kirill and Pope Francis
February 2016
“Finally!” That was the word with which Pope Francis gave
Patriarch Kirill a hug, marking the first encounter in history between a Roman
Catholic pope and a Russian Orthodox patriarch in the nearly thousand years
since Eastern Orthodoxy split with Rome. The two met in a private room in
Cuba’s Jose Marti airport, bridging a schism over a three-hour meeting. “We are
brothers,” Pope Francis added.
Gerald Levin and Stephen Case
January 2000
When the AOL-Time Warner merger was announced, the
combined companies boasted a market cap of $350 billion. The high-five between
Gerald Levin of Time Warner and Stephen Case of America Online marked the
biggest merger and acquisitions of all time, pegged at $165 billion. Years
later, after the deal failed, former Time Warner chief Jeffrey Bewkes
reportedly called it “the biggest mistake in corporate history”.
Narendra Modi and Nawaz Sharif
December 2015
The most surprising and talked about guest at Prime
Minister Narendra Modi’s swearing in ceremony in May 2014 was his Pakistani
counterpart Nawaz Sharif. But it was Modi’s surprise visit to Lahore a year
later, on December 25, where the duo’s hugs and handshakes were seen as a
significant sign of thawing in the icy relationship between the two neighbours.
The media dubbed the stopover, “A Christmas miracle”.
November 2015
The Shah Rukh Khan and Salman Khan feud of 2008 was one
of Bollywood’s biggest spats… until it ended over a quick hug at politician
Baba Siddique’s Eid party in 2014. The frozen vibes began thawing and on his
50th birthday in November last year, Shah Rukh shared the image of the duo in a
thick embrace, wrestler-style. The picture broke the internet, with 18,000 retweets
and 33,000 favourites.
Yitzhak Rabin and
Yasser Arafat
September 1993
Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin and
Palestinian
Liberation Organisation Chairman Yasser Arafat signed the Oslo Accords at the South Lawn of the White House. Standing in between the two men who had been bitter enemies for decades, President Bill Clinton coaxed Rabin and Arafat for a symbolic handshake, the men’s first. Unfortunately, the Oslo Accords failed to live up to the promise of that sun-soaked handshake.
Zinedine Zidane and Marco Materazzi
December 2010
French footballer Zinedine Zidane head butted Marco
Materazzi of Italy for allegedly hurling spiteful words at the 2006 World Cup
final. It was the biggest Football World Cup controversy ever. It took four
long years before the duo reconciled. The two reportedly hugged and made up
during an accidental meeting in the lobby of a Milan hotel. Because it was
impromptu, the moment was never captured.
Arvind Kejriwal and Lalu Prasad Yadav
November 2015
Kejriwal and Yadav hugging each other at the swearing-in
of Nitish Kumar as Bihar chief minister sparked controversy. Many have
interpreted the hug as an act of compromise on the part of Kejriwal and a
betrayal of the AAP’s principled stand against corruption. Kejriwal later
explained that it was Lalu who “pulled and hugged” him, and that he was still
opposed to Lalu’s “record of corruption”
and “dynasty politics”.
Kim Jong Un and Moon
Jae-in
The famous handshake, followed by photo-op and meeting between
North Korea’s Supreme Leader Kim Jong Un and South Korea’s President Moon
Jae-in (across the Military Demarcation Line that divides the two Koreas) was the
result of a remarkable thaw on the peninsula sparked by the Winter Olympics
earlier in the year. The two countries pledged to work for ‘complete
denuclearisation’ of the Korean peninsula.
Donald Trump and Kim
Jong Un
June 11, 2018
Donald Trump’s ‘alpha male’ handshake with Kim Jong Un in
Singapore marked the first meeting ever between a sitting US president and the
leader of North Korea. With cameras of the world’s press trained on them, Trump
and Kim displayed an initial atmosphere of bonhomie that’s marked as a major diplomatic
breakthrough.
