FLASH
Shkruar nga Pamfleti
US President Donald Trump's meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin comes at a time when many US diplomatic posts are without confirmed officials and several experts have left or been ousted from key roles.
There is no confirmed U.S. ambassador to Moscow, after career ambassador Lynne Tracy left earlier this summer.
Kiev is also without an official candidate after career ambassador Bridget Brink left the role and withdrew from the US government, criticizing the Trump administration for Russian "appeasement".
There is no confirmed assistant secretary of state for European affairs, nor is there a nominee. The senior foreign service official who served as the agency’s top European official, Louis Bono, was replaced by a former Senate staffer who worked with Secretary of State Marco Rubio. In addition, dozens of experienced diplomats and experts have been fired or elected to leave the State Department under this administration.
A former career American diplomat noted that having experts in diplomacy who know the Russian language and other issues is very valuable.
“ It’s a missed opportunity if you don’t use those experts and their knowledge ,” they said.
Democratic Senator Jeanne Shaheen of New Hampshire, the ranking member on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, said she fears the loss of expertise will have an impact on the meeting.
"Diplomacy is not often successful when it's done quickly, and that's what we're seeing all too often here with this administration. We need to have a more careful and planned strategy for what we want to achieve in a meeting like this (today's) and how we're going to do that, and make sure we're engaging people who have the knowledge, expertise and diplomatic experience to help with that," she told CNN.
Lini një Përgjigje