Fist-bump diplomacy

In global-ranking diplomacy handshakes have always been highly symbolic, either for positive or negative reasons. Since Covid, fist-bumps and elbow-bumps have carried the same significance. I always thought Boris Johnson overdid the elbow-bumping routine whenever he met with fellow leaders, doing a sort of dance while he did it. But now we have Joe Biden fist-bumping Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman. The impact has been like a megaton nuclear warhead detonating around the world. I don't know whether a handshake would have been worse. At least he didn't give him a hug. Basically as soon as Biden announced he was travelling to Saudi Arabia and would be meeting the crown prince, there was speculation overwhether he would shake the sheikh's hand but in the end they fist-bumped. Was this I wonder pre-arranged, a bit of fist-bump diplomacy. Anyway the mere fact that the president of the United States made physical contact with the man who, according to US intelligence, probably ordered the brutal killing in 2018 of Saudi dissident journalist Jamal Khashoggi whose body was then dismembered and taken away in a black bin bag, was enough to cause outrage. Ok, very tricky for Biden. He described Saudi Arabia as a pariah nation after the murder which should have meant he would never go to the country as president. But Saudi Arabia is a country that can't be avoided or evaded because of its hold on oil prices and so Biden had to go at some point. But a fist-bump meant, to the rest of the world, that Biden was prepared to return to normal relations. He said he raised Khashoggi and bin Salman denied being personally involved. As he has done ever since the killing. But the fact is a Saudi state hit squad was sent to Istanbul to get Khashoggi when he visited the Saudi consulate. The hit squad included a surgeon with bone-cutting instruments. I need say no more. And Biden has now fist-bumped the de facto Saudi leader who knows everything that goes on in his country.