George Washington Quotes

The notion that the UN is some sort of dispassionate body that, “does right” and just pursues everybody’s best interests is a fantasy. Each individual nation will be pursuing their best interests. That’s the normal behavior of nation-states. It shouldn’t surprise us, but neither should we go to them for permission to do what’s in our national interests.

Like other countries in the world, China must uphold its own sovereignty, territorial integrity and development interests. At the same time, we are willing to properly handle differences and disagreements in state-to-state relations.

No nation has friends only interests.

America has no permanent friends or enemies, only interests

There is no such thing as gratitude in international politics.

Let me let you in on a little secret. There is no such thing as an international community. There are self-maximizing, self-interested states that will push their interests as far as possible.

Putin responds to threats, to illegal sanctions, and to incessant propaganda with statements that governments need to respect each other's national interests and to work together for common benefit. No politician in the West speaks in this way.

It is easy to dismiss the world as 'irrelevant,' or consumed by 'paranoid anti-Americanism,' but perhaps not wise.

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.

Everybody pursues their national interests. The only one who gets blamed for it is the United States.

I believe a relationship with a country is simply bound to the interests of two countries and not by personal issues.

Of all the important relationships that Australia has with other countries, none has been more greatly transformed over the last 10 years than our relationship with China.

The links between the American government and the Iraqi government are so close that you cannot judge one without asking at least the other what he has done by this time.

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.

Globalization, far from putting an end to power diplomacy between States, has, on the contrary, intensified it.

I do want to try to put things in perspective today relative to the U.S.-Canada relationship. I would like to start by talking about how important this relationship is to the people of the United States.

The Japan-U.S. alliance is an irreplaceable alliance. And I would like to further consolidate and broaden that alliance.

The artificial separation of politics and culture is nowhere more pronounced than in the discourse of foreign policy and international affairs.

Every government is in some respects a problem for every other government.

Much of the relationship between the peoples of two countries has nothing to do with treaties or pieces of paper exchanged by people like me.

There is one condition for us to have healthy relations with the United States. It's called respect.

Normalization of relations with the United States should not be a reward for good behavior .... It should depend on America's interests.

There is no reason why we should not have peaceful relations with the world if we cease playing the role of international Meddlesome Mattie.

I like to stand up to the Americans. It’s popular, but you have to be very careful because they’re our friends.