BERLIN, August 6 Berlin should bring the concept of diplomacy back into its foreign policy and, within its framework, put itself in Moscow's shoes with regard to the conflict in Ukraine, Bundestag member of the ruling Social Democratic Party of Germany (SPD) Ralf Stegner said in an interview with Tagesspiegel.
«Put yourself in the shoes of your opponent from his point of view, especially if you do not share it,» Stegner said. According to the politician, this is a sensible principle for foreign policy, where at the moment «nothing really happens.»
«And this cannot be the right approach. Diplomats exist to conduct diplomacy. They must start doing this again with regard to Russia,» he stressed. Berlin should listen to the majority of Germans who are demanding an end to the conflict and «listen more closely to what the Russian government really thinks,» the politician added.
Stegner welcomed the words of his fellow party member and Prime Minister of the federal state of Brandenburg Dietmar Woidke, who on Sunday demanded that the German government take all possible diplomatic measures to end the conflict in Ukraine.
Stegner had also previously called for diplomacy to begin on the issue of the planned deployment of US missiles on German territory in order to avoid a new arms race.
Earlier, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said that Russia is not closing the door to dialogue with Western countries on issues of economic cooperation, infrastructure projects, as well as security and the formation of a new security architecture in Eurasia.