Thabo Mbeki Quotes

If U.S. mistakes in the Middle East helped Putin raise Russia's global profile, China's missteps and hubris in East and Southeast Asia, once called Indo-China, have opened up new spaces for India's profile to be raised.

Turkey wants to see Bashar al-Assad go and wants to kind of expand its sphere of influence into Turkey so its Ottoman glory or Ottoman past are once again project into the Syrian provinces. That's kind of what Turkey's vision is.

India is a regional power. It does not need anything to establish it.

I explained that we would like to adjust our position on the Syrian question to theirs, as, in our view, they are the decisive factor in our relations with our neighbors, and Syria is unimportant.

What Iran wants and what North Korea wants is respect.

Iraq is a manufactured conflict for the sake of geopolitical dominance in the area.

A lot of Iran's empowerment is a result of the war in Iraq.

I don't share the view that China and the U.S. need to reach some kind of strategic accommodation to carve up the Asia-Pacific region - that is an arrogant proposition and deeply insulting to other countries in the region, including Japan and potentially also India and Indonesia.

Europe is perhaps the first example in history of a non-dominant world power.

Although no one likes a hegemon, America will be a better hegemon than others would be.

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

Our inaction created the opportunity for the Russians to reenter the Middle East in a powerful way for the first time since 1973.

With the decline of America's global preeminence, weaker countries will be more susceptible to the assertive influence of major regional powers.

It makes sense for Japan to pursue a more independent role in the world, following Latin America and others in freeing itself from U.S. domination.

Mozambique and Zimbabwe must bring into being a new force in Malawi. We must not allow South Africa to set the course in Malawi... The victory is being planned... It demands cold-bloodedness.

The issue with Syria, I think for many of us, has always been about Iran. This is an anchor point for them in terms of regional domination. It means a lot to them. They are all in here.

Eurasia is home to most of the world's politically assertive and dynamic states.

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

In a world in which the United States does less, whatever set of calculations, other countries will tend to calculate - to move in one of two ways. Either they will assuage or, to use a more loaded term, appease the strongest power in the neighborhood with all the consequences of that, or they will determine to take matters into their own hands.

China is ruthlessly pragmatic. It supports North Korea for its own selfish interests. And I believe that China no longer considers us an ally. The current president, Xi Jinping, cultivates close relations with South Korea. He has never met with me, the leader of North Korea, something that the leader of China has always done. At the grand celebrations in Beijing two years ago commemorating the 70th anniversary of the end of World War II, he placed the president of Russia and the president of South Korea at his side. In North Korea, we pay a lot of attention to ceremonies and what they signal.

With all those fledgling countries in Asia, who really want to stand with us but they live under the shadow of China and the smaller shadow of Russia. So I just think Trans-Pacific Partnership is really important both economically and geopolitically.

Any forces that would impose their will on other nations will certainly face defeat.

Think about it: Iran, Cuba, Venezuela - these countries are tiny compared to the Soviet Union. They don't pose a serious threat to us the way the Soviet Union posed a threat to us.

Syria is no longer Syria. Syria is Russia and it's Iran, who Hillary Clinton made strong and Kerry and Obama made into a very powerful nation and a very rich nation, very, very quickly, very, very quickly.

I think what we're seeing is that they're testing each other. Russia is testing us, we're testing them, it's part of just, you know, the new president Donald Trump coming in and President Vladimir Putin having to figure out his place.