Will Obama take a step forward at G20?

Much has been said and written about the handshake between President Xi Jinping and Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe on the sidelines of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation Economic Leaders' Meeting in Beijing. And there is no denying the handshake has eased tensions in East Asia over the Diaoyu Islands dispute between China and Japan, which seemed to threaten peace in the region.

Xi has also taken the initiative to strike a landmark climate deal with US President Barack Obama, setting a self-imposed deadline for the first time to cap China's emissions by 2030. Climate scientists may speculate on the efficacy of the deal, but they agree it is good beginning.

Despite knowing full well he will face stiff opposition from a Republican-dominated Congress to cut US emissions by 26 to 28 percent from 2005 levels by 2025, Obama went ahead with the deal. The question now is: Will Obama show the same determination again?

Obama was all rhetoric when he assumed the US presidency. The world expected the world from him. Those expectations have melted in the violence in the Middle East, the waters of the Pacific and the bloody standoff in Ukraine. Apart from pulling out US combat troops from Iraq (and leaving the country in chaotic mayhem) he has failed his promises on the international front. Of course, he will pull out US troops from Afghanistan by the end of the year. But then, Afghanistan already seems a lost cause thanks in no small measure to the US invasion.

Obama promised to end the Israel-Palestine conflict and restore peace in the Middle East. His moves vis-��-vis Iran notwithstanding, the Middle East is in a bigger mess today. Worse, it has a new, very potent threat in the form of the Islamic State, which is on a massacre and destruction spree in Iraq and Syria. How does Obama want to combat this threat? Well, the old way: Oust Syrian President Bashar Assad first, and then deal with the IS.

In the Asia-Pacific region, his "pivot to Asia" strategy, many believe, has created more problems and solved none. But at least, the Xi-Abe handshake and the China-US pacts, especially on military, signed at the APEC conference will help defuse the situation in the region.

But no such breakthroughs seem forthcoming in the Ukraine crisis. Agreed, Russia led by strongman Vladimir Putin had a role to play in whatever has happened, and whatever will happen, in Ukraine, but the Ukraine crisis is not of his making alone. NATO's, rather the US', rapacity to expand its frontiers eastward is to be blamed for that. How could Obama even think Putin would sit back in amusement while Ukraine danced its way into the Western bloc cutting off access to its Black Sea fleet?

Whoever tied the knot on the bell is the one to untie it, goes a Chinese saying. Obama and Putin have been playing a hide-and-seek at international gatherings ever since the Ukraine crisis broke out. They did speak during the APEC conference, but nothing of substance was exchanged. On the sidelines of D-Day commemorations in Normandy in July, the two avoided each other. At a formal meeting during a summit in Northern Ireland last year, Putin slumped in his chair as Obama tried to joke about the Russian leader's athletic ability.

By avoiding each other, the two leaders have been avoiding to resolve an issue that concerns the future of a nation and its people, the region and the world order. Putin could have punished the Kiev leadership for siding with the West by not agreeing to the gas deal with Ukraine and thus forcing millions of Ukrainians into greater misery in winter. But he didn't.

Can we now expect Obama to take a leaf out of Xi's book on diplomacy? Obama and Putin both know the Ukraine crisis cannot be resolved without a meeting between US and Russian leaders. But the onus is more on Obama to take the first step toward such a meeting, because he has to justify the premature awarding of the Nobel Peace Prize to him. And perhaps he will not get a better occasion to do so than the G20 Summit in Brisbane on Nov 15 and 16.

The author is a senior editor with China Daily. oprana@hotmail.com