Unprepared, unblessed: German lawmaker slams US for overriding Europe in Geneva
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Armin-Paulus Hampel, a German lawmaker, criticizes Washington's unpreparedness and negligence of Brussels' security tenets in the talks.
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US Deputy Secretary of State (L) and Russian Deputy Foreign Minister (R) meet in Geneva for security talks on January 10, 2022.
The Americans came to Geneva to speak to Russia about European security without consulting Brussels about its security tenets, in a humiliating blow to the Europeans, according to Armin-Paulus Hampel, a foreign policy spokesman for the AfD party in Parliament.
"The United States delegation comes very unprepared to Geneva. Their negotiator is experienced, but the positions have not been discussed with European partners," Hampel said.
He continued to argue that in 2008, NATO made a mistake welcoming Ukraine and Georgia's ambitions to become a part of the treaty, given their "volatile" statuses, saying that it was "shocking" that Europe did not see the danger of giving power and trust to "hotheads" in Kiev and Tbilisi.
While Geneva saw discussions on strategic stability - though with an unprepared United States - Belgium will welcome Russia-NATO talks on Wednesday and another meeting will take place between Russian negotiators and the representatives of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe in Vienna on Thursday.
Ryabkov: Talks were difficult but businesslike
Ryabkov had commented on the Geneva talks, saying they were difficult but "businesslike".
"Amazing," Ryabkov stated at the conclusion of the preliminary talks when asked about how the meeting went.
The Russian diplomat stated that "the conversation was difficult but businesslike, we went straight to the matter of the upcoming talks, I think that tomorrow we will not waste time. I never lose my optimism, I am always guided by it."
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said Sunday Russia had the choice between dialogue and confrontation, hours ahead of Russian-US talks in Geneva in light of soaring tensions over Ukraine.
He asserted that the other path consisted of "confrontation and massive consequences for Russia if it renews its aggression on Ukraine. We are about to test the proposition about which path President Putin is prepared to take."
Russia had called it unlikely that it would give any concessions in the talks with the United States. Ryabkov said he found signals coming from Washington and Brussels in the past few days disappointing.
![In a 2021 interview with Frontline by former US special representative James Jeffrey, he says he had "engaged with [HTS] via backchannels while serving in President Trump’s State Department. (Al Mayadeen English; Illustrated by Batoul Chamas)](https://alpha-en-media.almayadeen.net/media/image/2024/12/21/b4a69f2e-8682-43e4-9d37-49482b304ab3/3.png?v=2&format=webp "In a 2021 interview with Frontline by former US special representative James Jeffrey, he says he had \"engaged with [HTS] via backchannels while serving in President Trump’s State Department. (Al Mayadeen English; Illustrated by Batoul Chamas)")
