Shangri-La Hotel considered highly likely for Trump-Kim summit after ‘special event area’ declared

Officials have yet to announce exactly where the historic summit between US president Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un will take place here, but they’ve made it pretty clear about where it might be.

The Tanglin area surrounding Shangri-La Hotel has been declared a “special event area” for the upcoming summit, raising the probability for the meeting to take place at the five-star luxury hotel. But since the gazetted area is bordered by Dunearn, Paterson, Grange and Cluny Roads, the meeting could very well take place at other high-end hotels within the vicinity, including the Four Seasons Hotel and St Regis.

Of course, it could also simply mean that either Trump or Kim is staying in one of the hotels within the zone, and the summit could take place somewhere else. Like the resort island of Sentosa, for example, where deputy White House chief of staff Joe Hagin has been staying, according to the New York Times.

Right now, the Shangri-La Hotel seems to be the best bet for where Trump might bunk in, considering that it has been a favored venue by previous American presidents to be hosted in. Former president Obama has held talks and meetings at the hotel off Orange Grove Road, while former president George W. Bush had a 15-hour sleepover there in 2003.

While there’s also a possibility of the zone being a decoy, it seems likelier that the Shangri-La Hotel will be hosting the landmark summit, considering that it was the venue for another historic meeting in 2015 between Chinese President Xi Jinping and then Taiwanese president Ma Ying-jeou.

The latest big event held there was none other than the Shangri-La Dialogue — the annual inter-governmental security summit, featuring the likes of US Secretary of Defense James Mattis and Prime Minister Narendra Modi of India.

“Special event area”

The designated zone will take effect from June 10 till June 14, and may consist of meetings and lead-in activities between representatives of the two countries ahead of the summit.

A smaller segment within the area has also been declared a “special zone” by the police commissioner, where stricter security checks will be conducted on people and vehicles entering the area. Body checks, bag checks, and the procurement of identity card or passport details — the works.

Drones, flags, banners, loud hailers, paint spray cans and flammable materials aren’t allowed in the zone, of course.