Forget Narendra Modi's hugs, Donald Trump makes it a hand-to-hand combat

Glad-handing has been always been a crucial part of a politician’s credo but the advent of the Trumpshake on the international stage has made the usual heads-of-state greeting a mano-a-mano duel.

Even the most trenchant critics would have to concede that Prime Minister Narendra Modi trumped the US president’s signature shake-and-yank manoeuvre — that had famously troubled many a world leader from Japanese PM Shinzo Abe to Canadian PM Justin Trudeau — by enveloping him in several successive sweeping Modi-hugs. But he may not be so lucky the next time, judging by the experience of French President Emmanuel Macron, who exchanged a white-knuckled grapple — deemed a technical draw rather than a knockout — with Donald Trump at a NATO summit in Brussels in May. He was eventually subjected to a marathon revenge 32-second poignee de main by Donald Trump right on the Champs-Élysées last week, with the French First Lady reluctantly making it an awkward menage a trois.

Previous US presidents have been known for their clasps, including the famous, brief “McKinley grip” which can be posited as the opposite of the Trump’s prolonged manual cincture. It would not be farfetched to prophesy that there will be plenty more gripping coverage of the clinching moments of certain international leaders, at least in the foreseeable future.