Mikhail Gorbachev Quotes

Sometimes everyone is foreign minister.

An ambassador also serves as an emblem of the country that appoints him.

I think I can hold every portfolio - defense, finance and Foreign Ministry. I think personally I'd like the foreign office.

Well, I think the United States first of all has to recognize the world for what it is.

Ambassadors are, by definition, foreign bodies.

Our policy is to deepen the relations with all the countries in the world - monarchies, kingdoms, large powers - we want to respect all differences and have our relationships based on mutual respect.

Foreign policy is like human relations, only people know less about each other.

The Russians are like us, they look and act like us. They are fine people. They got along with our soldiers in Berlin very well. As far as I am concerned, they can have whatever they want just so they don't try to impose their system on others..

They want to send me abroad, as a Consul or a Minister …. Good knows, I am mean enough and lazy enough without being a foreign consul.

I'm not disinterested in the rest of the world, but studies show the rest of the world is really freaking far away.

Working with Russia, we worked with Iran. Are they our friends? You have to take each situation uniquely.

Being a global ambassador is as much a responsibility as it is an honour.

The most important thing I learned as a foreign correspondent in about 80 countries is that it takes a very shallow knowledge of history to think that there are solutions to most problems.

Like Hillary Clinton, I, too, have traveled hundreds of thousands of miles around the globe. But unlike Mrs. Clinton, I know that flying is an activity, not an accomplishment.

My father was a Foreign Service officer, a diplomat and an Arabist who spent virtually all his career in the Near East, as it was called in the State Department. So I spent most of my childhood among the Israelis and the Arabs of Palestine, Lebanon, Saudi Arabia and Egypt.

England is very interested as well, and other countries if I could speak the languages!

When I was in college, I became interested in various aspects of foreign policy and international relations. Even as a kid, I was interested in what I call, loosely speaking, forbidden knowledge.

Let's start fresh with Russia on some real help and some real reform.

The Finnish way of dealing with Russia, whatever the situation, is that we will be very decisive to show what we don't like, where the red line is.

I spend every day up at the United Nations where I have to interact with 192 other countries. I know how well the United States is viewed.

Too often in Washington we tend to see foreign policy as an abstraction, with little understanding of what we are committing our country to: the complications and consequences of endeavors.

Now there is a cultural change under way in the Foreign Service.

The whole notion of an embassy is like 'The Other.' That's what makes Washington interesting.

One of the things I'm fascinated by as a traveler is watching how different countries control how they let the world encounter them.

The United States has got to adopt a policy of befriending and creating allies around the world.