2 Indian-origin ministers played key role

Two Indian-origin ministers in Singapore, Vivian Balakrishnan and K Shanmugam, are playing a key role in facilitating a hassle-free summit between US President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong-un here on Monday.

Balakrishnan, Singapore's Foreign Minister, made important visits to Washington, Pyongyang and Beijing in recent days to ensure that there would be no last-minute spoilers for the historic meeting hosted by the citystate. Balakrishnan, 57, is from the ruling People's Action Party. He studied medicine and later pursued postgraduate education in ophthalmology. Shanmugam is Singapore's Minister for Law and Home Affairs and he has the responsibility to make sure that the summit, the first between a sitting US president and a North Korean top leader, goes without a hitch from the security point of view.

A lawyer by profession, 59-year-old Shanmugam also belongs to the ruling People's Action Party. Singapore is one of the few countries that have diplomatic relations with both the US and North Korea. Balakrishnan, who received Kim, the Chairman of North Korea's State Affairs Commission, on Sunday at Changi Airport, said the summit comes after 70 years of suspicion, war and diplomatic failures. "This is not the way conventional diplomacy would have been conducted, but perhaps you need two very unconventional leaders to have brought us to this stage," he told the BBC.

"They may be able to pull rabbits out of a hat that the rest of us conventional diplomats would not have been able to do," he said. Still, he noted that decades of tension cannot be resolved in one meeting, although, based on his interactions with their staff and meeting them personally, "both are supremely confident, both are hopeful". Balakrishnan also said that the Singapore government was footing the hotel bill for Kim and his delegation who are staying at the plush St Regis hotel here.