Yesterday, Managing Director Tim Masselink was featured on EditieNL and Head of Strategy Maarten van Rossum joined Eva Jinek, where they shared their expert analyses on the negotiations between Trump and Putin.

In the EditieNL broadcast, Tim elaborated on the importance of the informal part of negotiations, as important as the formal part. It is crucial that all parties at the table understand each other's culture and background, allowing to build a relationship. For example, Dutch people often want to get straight to the content, but in other countries, this can be perceived as rude and disinterested. 

When this is not understood, it can lead to enormous damage, particularly in international diplomacy. So, as Stephen Covey would put it: ‘first seek to understand, then to be understood’.

Maarten joined Eva and explained the concept of the ‘mutually-hurting stalemate’. This concept illustrates how important timing can be: when both parties have suffered equally and there is no improvement in sight for either of them, a ‘ripe’ moment arises when they are truly willing to engage in dialogue. 

That moment is not present now, because - partly due to Trump's policy - the suffering on Ukraine's side is greater than on Russia's side. As a result, the negotiations will not be fruitful for now.

Source: EditieNL

Curious about EditieNL broadcast? Watch it here.

Curious about Eva's broadcast? Watch it here.