Ken Watanabe Quotes

Small countries such as Belgium would be well-advised to rally to the side of the strong if the wish to retain their independence.

It's never easy to be a small country next to a big neighbor.

I'm in favour of a multi-polar world. I believe that every country has the right to defend its own interests.

The predominant yardstick of your government is not human rights but national interests.

In international relations, in foreign policy, a great deal has to do with historical circumstances, a great deal has to do with the sense and perception of people.

American presence is, you know, the major cause of balance of power and the stability in this region.

President Obama's consistent agenda has been to weaken the United States and our allies in pursuit of a more 'balanced' global power structure.

The United States is the world's best hope; but if you fetter her in the interests and quarrels of other nations, if you tangle her in the intrigues of Europe, you will destroy her power for good and endanger her very existence.

The time has come to recognize that the U.S. will continue to exercise unprecedented power in a world where international rules are still unreliable and where security and advancing of the free democratic order still depend significantly on the possession and use of military might.

Political and security realities have reduced the scope of American unilateralism.

A new multipolar world has brought more uncertainty into international affairs.

What you have to remember about Belarus is that it's a small state - it has a population of less than 10m people - and like many small states, it has to be very careful about its relationships.

The amount of military force necessary to provide reassurance depends on how dangerous people think the world is. And that I think ultimately depends upon the kinds of government that hold sway in major countries.

Diplomacy is not an end in itself if it does not advance U.S. interests.

Foreign policy is an explicitly amoral enterprise.

I believe the U.S. already understands and will understand more and more that only a strong Russia will respond to the genuine interests of the United States.

No nation has friends only interests.

Foreign policy is really domestic policy with its hat on.

President Obama, like every other leader on Earth, is still going to be looking out for national and economic interests. States don't cease to be states overnight just because they get a great visionary as their new president.

Nations, great nations have limitations. All nations have limitations. Even great powers have limitations.

Of course as a small country you're not necessarily in the strongest negotiating position unless you're negotiating with other small countries.

What Ottawa and Washington used to think about Turkey or Iran was not very important because we really didn't think much about either, but now what we think about them is extremely important - to ourselves and to many other peoples.

It kind of scares me, the notion that we're going to be injecting ourselves into other countries' affairs when they're not posing a threat to our security. I wouldn't be telling Israel what to do.

Foreign policy - dealing as it does with the most charged political subjects of all, the safety and dignity of the nation - will always be political terrain particularly vulnerable to distortion and demagoguery.

The internal affairs of other countries has a big impact on American interests.