1001 Nights Cast

Rapprochement was honoured as word of the day on April 23, 2001 by Dictionary.com. I found it again in the Dictionary of Difficult Words. And on October 7, 2004, it was posted on the TooMuchSexy.blog by Etan, along with ‘sycophant’ and ‘tremulous’ as words whose meanings he generously shared with fellow bloggers. He gave them this example of its usage, ‘The meetings in the Middle East are in an effort to bring rapprochement.’ Thank you Etan. I thought I might look for some others.

In their quest for rapprochement with Beijing, Nixon and Kissinger had taken Japan by surprise—there had been no attempt at advance notice, despite previous understandings that Washington and Tokyo would coordinate any decisions on innovations in China policy. With the U.S. devaluation of the dollar and import surcharges of August 1971, the U.S. China initiative was one of the ‘Nixon Shokku’ that soured U.S-Japan relations for years to come. Other documents from the weeks that follow show the establishment of a new secret Sino-American channel of communications in Paris, largely supplanting the vitally important Pakistan channel of 1969-1971. Through the talks held in Paris, Kissinger and his Chinese interlocutors discussed details of the presidential visit, Kissinger’s forthcoming (October) trip, as well as the developing India-Pakistan crisis over East Pakistan (Bangladesh).

A recent deal to sell Egyptian natural gas to Israel, while unpopular with the general public here, marks steadily improving diplomatic relations between the historical antagonists.

The Bush Administration should be aware that Russian-Saudi rapprochement may affect U.S. energy security and may diminish Russia’s enthusiasm in support of U.S. war on terrorism. If successful, these ties may lessen U.S. clout in the Middle East and boost Moscow’s impact. As Moscow and Riyadh discover their newfound common agenda, and pursue cooperation, the Bush Administration should remember the old adage: countries do not have permanent friends. They only have permanent interests.

We recently noted the new rapprochement between India and Burma, traditional rivals, which has worked to the detriment of indigenous groups in the remote rainforest straddling the border, heretofore able to play the two powers off against each other to win some local autonomy. Now it seems, as usual, the international reconciliation is lubricated with hydrocarbons. Despite an international boycott, India is hoping to build a pipeline to import Burmese natural gas. Bangladesh is exploiting its position between the two countries to try to wrest trade concessions in exchange for allowing the pipeline to cross its territory.…what makes the Bangladesh route so essential is that the only alternative would be through the remote jungle border to the north, the domain of armed indigenous separatist movements which would be certain to impede construction…

The inability of Armenian President Robert Kocharian and Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan to meet on the sidelines of a Council of Europe summit in Warsaw in mid-May signaled the collapse of the rapprochement initiative.

Erdogan reportedly refused to meet Kocharian because of the latter’s renewed calls during the summit for international recognition of the 1915-1923 slaughter of an estimated 1.5 million Armenians in the Ottoman Empire as genocide. Turkey vehemently denies that the mass killings constituted a genocide, insisting that Ottoman Armenians died in much smaller numbers and mainly as a result of civil strife.

After decades of distrust and animosity, the leaders of the world’s two most populous countries are seeking to improve relations at a meeting in Beijing. Indian Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee and his Chinese hosts hope to use the occasion to make progress on such thorny issues as territorial borders, India’s nuclear aspirations and Tibet.

Ten years ago, the mere notion of a televised love story between Greek and Turk seemed so improbable as to not even merit a tragic script worthy of Romeo and Juliet.

But in the wake of an attempted rapprochement between the two countries, the issue is no longer taboo for a Greek television market hungry for new angles in its staple recipe of passion, jealousy and emotional conflict.

Having already tested local stereotypes with soaps examining Greek relationships with Gypsies and migrant workers, private channels have been experimenting with Greek-Turkish themes in two separate series over the past year.

In Cuba, Catholics and communists tolerate but do not trust one another. There is no enthusiasm for a rapprochement, just cool calculation on the part of the two institutions, Church and State, each hoping to gain from dialogue with the other. Nevertheless, this year Christmas was reinstated and the churches were full. Ordinary Cubans will be watching with intense interest the forthcoming encounter between two very different personalities, institutions and political agendas…In 1959, when the revolution took place, the Cuban communist party was openly atheist, proclaiming that God did not exist.

Algerian stances thwart rapprochement with Morocco.
Hopes for US-Iranian rapprochement fade.
The signs of a new rapprochement between India and China are genuine.
History overshadows Japan-South Korea rapprochement.

It seems, Etan, that all around the world the word is used like safety pins to fix a falling hemline.