thats all about giving the europeans just enough rope to hang themselves, and then watch if their facial expressions are still the correct ones, despite coming out a bit delayed, because the european on the talk suddenly needs to mask them.
Hey, open talk initiatives to see if the other side is still in line with your assessment of them are great, arent they?
So whats the potential scenario here? Biden should be able to tell the chinese delegations in scheduled talks starting in april, that Europe will set them an ultimatum on trade, if they dont put more pressure on russia, because europe is really in a historic position here. To loose both chinese imports/manufacturing, and russian energy exports - while if they dont, and things work out fine, they get demoted to “tool status” in the process! Sorry, “historic tool status”.
Ah, transatlantic friendship initiatives.
Where you have to first mute yourself, then fake your reactions not to get ousted. Diplomacy among friends, at its best.
Oh, and btw:
US Senate unlikely to act on House-passed Russia energy import ban
Even though the US House passed a bill last week to impose a ban on Russian energy imports, Senate sources say it’s unlikely their chamber will move on the measure.
That’s because senators view the issue as essentially moot after US President Joe Biden took executive action to ban the imports.
Moreover, Sen. Joe Manchin, who chairs the Senate Energy Committee, has contended that the House bill is weaker than the executive action — so they see little reason to move on a measure viewed as falling short of the current policy.
src: click
US back from bipartisan support to politics via executive action again.
edit: Oh, what an entirely unexpected surprise, DW has found a pundit that convinces them that this would be the exact thing we should stive for at the moment. Last sentence in the interview, btw - after that its just thank yous and signing off. Logic behind the argument this time? Well, listen, there is something we must have the US do, because, the liberal rights based order is in danger, and this has to be stopped and… You know the drill by now - values. Values other countries are so impressed by, that they congratulate european diplomats regularly on them, or at least have in the past, when they told them to scram without results. The values though…!
Am 30. Juni 2021 schied Heusgen aus dem Auswärtigen Dienst aus.[12] Er ist seit 2020 Honorarprofessor an der Universität St. Gallen[13] und Vorsitzender des Stiftungskreises der Münchner Sicherheitskonferenz.
*shakefist* src: click