Barack Obama Quotes

Now, the United Nations is an organization that I believe was founded with good intentions. As a matter of fact, a prominent Tennessean named Cordell Hull was very involved with it.

What we need now is a Treaty of the World not a Treaty of Rome.

When the E.U. and the U.S. agree, other countries follow.

Over many years, the United States has worked to persuade and compel governments around the world to abide by the rules. By spurning our own rules, we put that effort at risk.

Globalisation must have, as a critical component, international dispensation in the locality of U.N. institutions. It cannot be, and must not be, business as usual in the establishment and location of international institutions, especially of the United Nations.

The most tragic paradox of our time is to be found in the failure of nation-states to recognize the imperatives of internationalism.

If governments do not want to work with the U.N. and the international organizations, there is a limit to what you can do. And there is also a limit to patience.

It is more difficult [for foreign governments] to ignore or defy a convention signed by 120 countries than a bilateral treaty with the United States.

The United Nations is a failed institution in its current form.

American foreign policy must uphold the sanctity of international treaties. That is the cornerstone on which all relations between nations must rest.

International institutions like the UN can only be as effective as its members allow it to be.

By heralding President Xi Jinping's accession to permanent leadership, soliciting Vladimir Putin's reentry into the Group of Seven, and declaring that Kim Jong Un is 'beloved by his people,' Trump legitimizes the very behavior that U.S. presidents opposed for decades.

Without American leadership at the U.N., countries just continue to talk and socialize and spend taxpayer dollars.

It's important that all around the globe that the United States is pursuing the most effective foreign policy possible.

We have a much bigger objective. We've got to look at the long run here. This is an example - the situation between the United Nations and Iraq - where the United Nations is deliberately intruding into the sovereignty of a sovereign nation.... Now this is a marvelous precedent (to be used in) all countries of the world.

I think this country and the world would be far better off if the US is not an outlaw state.

The U.N. is a dysfunctional organization.

I spent eight years at the U.N., so I understand that U.S. ambassadors have a lot of issues to cover.

It's one of my government's ambitions to secure a seat for Ireland on the U.N. Security Council so that we can play an even greater role in international affairs and try to build what we all believe in, which is a world of laws.

Putin goes to bed at night knowing he can break all the rules, and the West will follow all the rules.

We must make it clear that we won't interfere in other countries' elections and work to make that the clear international norm.

Europeans must shed their illusions about what they can accomplish in the world on their own. Loose talk about resurrecting a multi-polar world is just that - loose talk.

We must apply the same standards to countries such as Saudi Arabia, Israel and Egypt that we apply to Iran, Russia and Syria.

We have to acknowledge and discuss with citizens that Germany needs to take on more responsibility. One of the questions is, 'Can we keep a functioning international order?'

The European Union will continue to fully support multilateral global governance based on international law, human rights, and strong international institutions.