On July 16, we aired my exclusive interview with former Afghan President Hamid Karzai. Some of you might have watched it. I would like to share a thought-provoking anecdote that happened behind the scenes. 

Right before we started the interview, Karzai’s press officer turned on a voice recorder and placed it on the table between us. This is a rather common practice for interviewees to keep a record of the conversation so that the journalist or editors don’t distort the content of the conversation. 

But Karzai smiled and told his press officer, you don't need it for the Chinese media. The press officer quickly took it away.

And, as trusted, we aired Karzai’s interview to the fullest extent allowed by the duration of the program, without manipulating his answers. 

Besides being honored with such trust, I was reminded of the importance of being truthful, not just as a journalist but indeed, as a human being in general, because that’s where trust starts. 

When governments deal with each other, it’s especially true. If an administration says one thing, but turns around to say or do another, there can be no trust or credibility to speak of.

Karzai pointed out that was exactly the problem with the US administration when it came to dealing with Afghanistan. When US President Trump announced his Afghan policy last August, he said, and I quote: “We are a partner and a friend (of Afghanistan), but we will not dictate to the Afghan people how to live, or how to govern their own complex society.” If that was what the US was doing on the ground, things would be very different. Unfortunately, Karzai said, that has not been the case. 

Obviously, when Trump made that announcement, nobody put a “voice recorder” in front of him, reminding him that he has to mean what he says. But wait, isn’t everything on record when the US president speaks in public? A possible explanation could be, he simply says it what he wants, without worrying too much about honoring it. It’s not a campaign promise, he is unlikely to lose any votes over it, so if the promise cannot be kept, who cares? 

During the US’ trade negotiations with China in Washington DC back in May, negotiators from the Trump administration were reported to have agreed that they would not resort to a trade war in dealing with the trade friction with China. But obviously, nobody put a voice recorder on the table. That word was quickly overturned by the US side before they took unilateral tariff actions. 

Now, during his joint press conference with Russian President Vladimir Putin, President Trump said the US-Russia relationship has never been worse than it is now. That also changed, after their meeting in Helsinki. The world should be watching if President Trump will keep his promise and direct his team to engage in constructive dialogue with Russia, as he has pronounced. For the record, we all heard that. 

By the way, Mr. Putin, when you had that two-hour closed-door meeting with Mr. Trump, did you turn on a “voice recorder”? 

Watch the full edition of Liu Xin’s exclusive interview with former Afghan President Hamid Karzai here: https://youtu.be/nY5sC8jwPBk 

(The Point with Liu Xin is a current affairs program on CGTN. The program comments on global news through Liu Xin’s unique perspective.)