Nicholas Burns Quotes (120 Quotes)

That is a signal both to the United States and to the rest of the international community that this move by the Indian government is permanent. It's going to be sustainable and it's not going to be taken back.

We think it's a highly significant appointment which ought to be welcomed by the detractors of our president's policy.

We believe the resulting agreement (with India) advances our strategic partnership and is a net gain for non-proliferation. We do not plan to offer such cooperation to any other country.

We are working with the Russian government to try to make sure that the Russian government mounts a very aggressive investigation, a criminal investigation, into this brutal murder.

The situation has changed fundamentally on the ground, certainly this week, but I think in general over the last couple of months in Bosnia, ... If the Bosnian Serbs felt at one time they could achieve a military victory in this conflict, they certainly don't believe that today and no one else does either.

Washington was under obligation to see that NSG countries also undertake requisite steps for similar cooperation with India.

There's no way anybody from the outside can comment publicly and criticize the actions of our government midstream in a negotiation.

It is up to the international community to find a way to pressure Iran to go back to a position of negotiations and to suspend its nuclear activities.

The actions India committed to undertake are difficult, complex and time consuming,

We want the Iranians to negotiate, whether it's with the EU-3 or Russia or any other country, on a serious basis.

We are working very hard on this agreement on both sides. We have great respect for Indian colleagues with whom we are working, we have been active now for 11 months and there have been unique negotiations, very challenging. But there is a goodwill by both governments, and a commitment by President Bush to see this through towards a conclusion.

there has to be a graduated series of steps to bring Iran back to a position of negotiations and suspension of its nuclear activities.

To consign it (India) to a place outside that system did not appear to be strategically wise, and has not proven effective,

It's a waiver authority ... We are not seeking relief from US law for any country in the world except India and we don't anticipate putting any country forward. So it is India specific.

It is our judgment there is life left in the diplomatic process.

I do not anticipate, and I'm 100 percent sure about this, any contact between whichever official is sent by the Iranian government and our delegation, including Secretary Rice.

In this very complex, globalized world, despite the power of the United States, we cannot go it alone, ... We do have to work through multilateral institutions. Each of them has their own strengths and weaknesses. The United Nations has both.

Every country in these meetings said that some type of action had to be taken. All of us want to take one collective, multilateral action in New York at the Security Council.

We see a possibility of creating with India one of the two or three or four strategic relationships we have with anyone in the world.

the message from my government to the Haitian government is that they need to work with much greater speed and much greater efficiency in organizing these elections.

All the major issues in these peace talks remain open issues and by that, I mean, there are still in some cases significant divisions, significant disagreements and significant gaps among the parties,

I should also tell you that India has agreed that in the future, all of its civilian power reactors, thermal reactors and breeder reactors, will be placed under international safeguards.

This is a pressure cooker and people are not going to tolerate another five years of not knowing who they are, what country they live in and what their future is.

Zaire has not had a democracy for the last 31 years. Its people deserve to have a representative government ... some economic and political stability.

Ten years is a long time for a country to be under international stewardship, and it is time now to diminish the powers

There is a great deal of frustration in the United States that this problem has not been resolved after such a long time.

I believe, as Iran is a neighbor, it's going to send a representative. I'm not quite sure at what level that person will be.

We're prepared for that debate. We will advise the Congress that it is our very clear judgment that this is a good deal for the United States as well as for India.

One would have hoped that he (Ahmadinejad) might have chosen a speech with more humility, a speech with a greater inclination to compromise. He was quite defiant ... That did not leave a lot of room for compromise, for diplomacy.

There is a historic opportunity for the people of Kosovo now to define their own future,

It's clear the situation in the Middle East remains dangerous and requires intensive and productive efforts.

This is an historic opportunity to shape the future of the country. ... We call on the new leadership to establish an inclusive transitional government leading to elections, and to ensure full respect for human rights throughout the country.

This is no time for the Turkish government to be making wild and dramatic statements. It would be completely out of bounds for Turkey to take this action.

John is working very hard, hand-in-glove with Washington on this.

That remains our plan. And I've been in touch with the Indian government this week. I expect to be in touch with them in the coming days, and we hope to reach that goal.

It is a unique deal for India. Despite our friendship for Pakistan, there have been proliferation problems of a quite serious nature over the last several years that would make this kind of deal impossible.

None of the participants have a veto power and certainly the sponsors of the talks do not have the veto power, ... Compromise will be the basis for the solution.

My strong impression from our discussions here in Belgrade is that the Serb government is working very seriously to find General Mladic and there will be a sincere attempt to capture him or to have him voluntarily surrender and to send him to The Hague.

We are very clear in our administration ... this agreement has not changed. We are not adding any conditions that we expect the Indian government to meet,

Secretary Christopher believes that, based on his meetings today, that the tone (of the meetings) has been cooperative, that they are off to a good start, but he doesn't minimize the challenges ahead of us.

India's vote was a blow to Iran's attempt to turn this into a developed world versus a developing world debate.

We are side by side with Spain in opposing terrorism and opposing this notoriously vicious terrorist organization, the ETA.

He gave a pardon to his son-in-law and then had him executed. He tried to make up with the Iraqi Kurds five years ago, and then tried to destroy them.

The United States position on war criminals is uncompromising. We will not support Bosnia-Herzegovina or Serbia-Montenegro in NATO's Partnership for Peace program until this problem is resolved. It's that simple,

There is no question in my mind that were going to have to see a significant international response, and that will be one of rebuke of the government of Iran for its actions. And as I said last week, and as Secretary of State Rice has said during this week when she's been traveling in the Middle East and Europe, a great variety of countries are going to have to consult about whether or not sanctions is the right way forward. The United States believes it is. There has to be a significant international diplomatic response to show the Iranian government that this is not a cost-free exercise.

We have to respect the prerogatives of Congress but we are suggesting India-specific amendments to the Atomic Energy Act of 1954.

I've made it very clear at all of my meetings that the strong will of the entire international community is that these men should be held accountable for the war crimes they surely committed in the 1990s,

I shouldn't go into them because they should remain confidential, but they remain barriers to an agreement. I don't believe they're insuperable.

The 'critical dialogue' has not succeeded in moderating Iran's behavior,

When (Christopher) travels to the Balkans late next week and into the following week, he'll be making his point personally. And by then we expect that all prisoners will have been released.