Thabo Mbeki Quotes

One is treading on very delicate ground when you have to consider the public opinion in China, Japan, the League of Geneva, and at home. It is pretty hard to avoid using a word which may arouse unintended repercussions in one or the other of those half a dozen localities

I believe that we do not share as many values with Russia yet as we do with the United States. On the other hand, we have a strong interest in Russia developing in a reasonable direction.

I would love to have a stable, productive relationship with Russia.

I think I'd have a good relationship with Putin. Who knows? He's been a leader far more than Barack Obama has been a leader.

I think, clearly, we got to work closely with China to resolve the serious problems we have, and I worry about Putin and his military adventurism in the Crimea and the Ukraine.

It is not wise for Chinese to do things to artificially disrupt relations with the U.S.

Prospects of normalizing our relations with Russia look good.

How have relations with Iran and Belarus benefited Venezuela? We are interested in countries that have democracies, that respect human rights, that we have an affinity with. What affinity do we have with Iran?

Our relations with the other powers of Europe have experienced no essential change since the last session.

I have spent time discussing the American political system and current events in Taiwan with the junior diplomats, and they have repeatedly expressed their country's desire to avoid confrontation with China.

And Israel, being a tiny, small country, of course has interest to strengthen - we have interest to strengthen our relations with other countries, mostly countries that were hostile for many, many years.

Turkey can be a bridge to regimes and actions the United States can't reach. Turkey can talk to people the United States can't talk to.

I think that the president of Iran has the authority wherever which - where - wherever the national interests of the country are involved and, when it is necessary and expedient and required to speak and talk with others in order to promote the rights of its nation, that the president can take that initiative.

This fact lays on us - so long as the maintenance of good relations with Russia seems to us worth an effort - the duty of satisfying Russia that she has no need to fear any invasion of her sphere of interests on Germany's part.

Of course the United States and Russia have different interests. Nevertheless, both are strategic partners.

Clearly, the Chinese know that we want a good relationship with them.

The way you change foreign policy is by raising the domestic political cost of the policy.

Clearly, for France in her present position, intelligent activity consists of practicing a policy of entente with Germany in order to survive

Multilateralism may be little more than a polite way of camouflaging what is in practice unilateralism with allies.

The United States may have to abandon its policy of avoiding entangling alliances.

The United States has better relations with the countries of Asia than any of them have with each other.

English [foreign] policy is to float lazily downstream, occasionally putting out a diplomatic boat-hook to avoid collisions.

It’s not in our interest to drive the Russians into a beleaguered attitude where they have to prove what they can do.

If Russia and the United States approach each other in starkly adversarial terms, the conflict will badly warp the foreign policy of both countries ...

Nothing guides Russian policy so much as a desire for friendship with the United States.