U.S. Relations With the People's Republic of China (2008)

U.S. Department of State

Interview With Tavis Smiley of National Public Radio

Secretary Condoleezza Rice
Washington, DC
December 18, 2008

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QUESTION: Assess for me what you think is going to be said about the appreciation, or lack thereof, for diplomacy by the Bush Administration and the whole notion of the Bush doctrine connected to that.

SECRETARY RICE: Well, I think on diplomacy, it will be said that this President understood that there were certain structural matters that had to be taken care of. The Middle East wasn't going to change with Saddam Hussein in the middle of it. You weren't going to have the way to fight the war on terror unless you insisted on some -- a different Middle East or unless you were able to bring the -- throw the Taliban out of Afghanistan. And so some difficult things were done.

But in the final analysis, this President has been more engaged in multilateral diplomacy, whether it is the work we've done with the Russians, the Japanese, the South Koreans, the Chinese, to try and deal with North Korean nuclear weapons, whether it is the effort that we have with Russia and China and the Europeans on Iran, or the multilateral diplomacy that we succeeded in at the UN just a couple of days ago, when we got a unanimous agreement on a piracy resolution, unanimous agreement -- or agreement on a Middle East resolution that enshrines the Annapolis process.

This President has really engaged the international community through his diplomacy. We've insisted on results. We've wanted to do difficult things. It hasn't always been popular, but I think over time, history will show that it's been effective.

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2008/1079

Released on December 19, 2008