Ed Davey Quotes

Coming from a smaller nation in Central Europe, I have learned pretty soon how important are agreed rules, cooperation, respect for partners and, most of all, willingness to listen and find common solutions.

If you want to make peace with your enemy, you have to work with your enemy. Then he becomes your partner.

We always have hoped that American diplomacy deploys itself in dialogue and persuasion rather than by ultimatums. That is the path we want in international relations.

We have to find compromises. That's the way it is in Norway.

I'm not looking for a battle with anybody, neither the council nor our labor partners.

A constructive approach to diplomacy doesn't mean relinquishing one's rights. It means engaging with one's counterparts, on the basis of equal footing and mutual respect, to address shared concerns and achieve shared objectives.

In politics, you must let the other person have your way.

Diplomacy is letting someone else have your way.

Negotiations can create conditions that can lead to solutions.

I don't twist arms. I shake hands.

Surely diplomacy is needed when there is conflict, not when there is harmony.

If you want help from partners, that means listening to them every once in a while.

There is an appealing moral clarity in dividing the world into friend and foe. But in reality, progress in international affairs so often demands working with those with whom we do not see eye to eye.

A huge amount of negotiations and diplomacy has nothing to do with bartering or arguing but is just trying to get everyone [doing the negotiating] on the same page. It takes yours, days, even weeks sometimes.

You need people that are willing to talk to the other side, or you're never going to get anything done. You need to be willing to expand your ground. There's always usually a place on issues where you can find common ground.

Choose the path of dialogue rather than the path of unilateral decisions.

We've got to take confrontation out of the centre of politics. With fighting, no one wins; with dialogue, everyone wins.

There are some issues where we have common interests with Germany, there are some others that we don't... The diplomacy between good neighbors doesn't mean nodding one to another.

The foreign policy is not about changing mindsets. Foreign policy is about finding the common meeting points.

It is not always possible to have everything go as one likes. In working with allies, it sometimes happens that they develop opinions of their own

When we face problems or disagreements today, we have to arrive at solutions through dialogue. Dialogue is the only appropriate method. One-sided victory is no longer acceptable. We must work to resolve conflicts in a spirit of reconciliation and always keep in mind the interests of others.

To have compromise you must first have dialog. That is the true path of democracy.

Politics and more politics - that's how you work towards the building of agreements.

That's where my job comes in. Getting the E.U. and U.S. to agree.

Solutions must be based on compromises.