What foreign ambassadors really think about Biden’s first year .Pick up the phone, they say: “We’re talking about 10 f—ing minutes of your time.”

21 January, 2022 | Filed under: All News,more news,RECENT POSTS | Posted by:

When Donald Trump was at the helm, America’s allies were deeply critical of his administration’s foreign policies. On the plus side, the freewheeling White House gave them wide-ranging access to top officials.

After one year with President Joe Biden in charge, friendly nations say they’re much happier with U.S. foreign policy, but they’re frustrated by the lack of high-level access and plodding decision-making.

 In particular, many feel shut out of the national security policy process — but hope efforts to deter another Russian invasion of Ukraine could mark a turning point.

President Joe Biden speaks in the Eisenhower Executive Office Building on the White House Campus.

 POLITICO spoke with 19 ambassadors and senior embassy staff serving in Washington, D.C., and hailing from Europe, Asia, Africa, Latin America, the Middle East and the Pacific. In nearly unanimous fashion, they described an administration that is more organized and process-driven than the previous one.

While fewer diplomats now have tweet notifications set for White House accounts, the rub is that they feel left out by an administration that takes pains to say it’s deliberate and consultative.

“At the end of the day, what are we talking about? We’re talking about 10 fucking minutes of your time,” said one ambassador from a European Union country. “The thing is [Russian Foreign Minister Sergey] Lavrov, he will travel to our country and he will sit down with our guys for an hour, hour and a half. It’s not that we believe everything that Mr. Lavrov says, but if he gives an hour of his time, you will listen to him, you will get his spin.”

But for many large European countries, there’s been a noticeable improvement in the Biden administration’s engagement since the Afghanistan debacle: “They coordinate quite closely, it’s quite successful,” said one ambassador. In fact, more powerful regional countries tend to receive a lot of attention from Biden’s team. “I’ve been spoiled,” said one ambassador from Asia. “More or less, we can have immediate communication.”

The ambassador added that America’s domestic problems and the pandemic limit how much time and energy the administration can spend with all who want attention. “There must be some frustration on the part of smaller countries, but that’s a reflection of the political realities that exist here.”

Others complained the administration isn’t reading them into important decisions, like what was on the table during U.S.-Russia negotiations over Ukraine last week. One official said their government is only getting readouts from public NATO statements.

“We are in some kind of gray zone. We don’t know what they’re saying about us,” the official asserted, adding that “we never felt so insecure as we do now,” and suggesting that other smaller governments in Europe feel the same.

The administration insists it’s acting openly — even itemizing repeated engagements between the administration and foreign counterparts as bilateral U.S.-Russia talks kicked off.

Jens Stoltenberg, NATO’s secretary general, said he is “very grateful” for how the U.S. has worked with NATO “both before the bilateral talks with Russia in Geneva, but also afterwards.” “Deputy Secretary [of State] Wendy Sherman has spent so much time with NATO allies consulting closely,” he added.

For some European countries outside the alliance, that emphasis on close NATO consultation is what stings so badly. “Jake [Sullivan] and Amanda [Sloat] are choosing to communicate through NATO,” complained one European official, referring to the national security adviser and NSC Europe director, respectively.

But EU Ambassador Stavros Lambrinidis lauded the Biden team for “taking the drama out of the relationship,” and noted that “when you bring skin to the game: they listen.”

Speaking on condition of anonymity to allow these foreign officials to speak freely, however, the majority of ambassadors POLITICO spoke with said the Biden administration operates at odds with the president’s well-earned reputation as an empathetic schmoozer.

Top officials, from Joe Biden on down, don’t call often enough or issue the invitations diplomats have come to expect from a friendly White House.