Tim Kaine

You are joining a wonderful, wonderful collegial fraternity and sorority of American public servants.

I believe strongly that the success of our engagement abroad depends on our people.

Virginia has been a great user of this program, and it is to bring international teachers to Virginia who have been very enriching of the student experience in the Virginia public schools.

We need to find ways in which we can grow American jobs by investing in increased entrepreneurship and trade with Africa.

I want to offer a special congratulations to my friend, Patrick Gaspard, somebody I really admire greatly.

I think it works really well and partners with local business and local communities.

I think it is the case that there have only been three nations who have gone down the path toward developing nuclear weapons and then decided, you know what, we do not need nuclear weapons to have the right kind of future for our…

I think it has been an American tradition to have a foreign policy that moves along an east-west axis.

I just have a feeling that the world is going in such a way that America needs a foreign policy that is every bit as much about north-south as it is about east-west.

Human trafficking, as we know, is a major issue throughout the Asia-Pacific, and Australia is working closely with our professionals at the Department of State and our law enforcement folks throughout the region to, hopefully, beat back an…

It was really a powerful one.

I think the nonratification of that convention and the one on the rights of citizens with disabilities are just out of character with who we are.

I had a chance to visit the Middle East and Afghanistan with six Senators about a month ago.

I think there is a wonderful leadership opportunity for South Africa to play in that message.

I would love to be involved in an effort to get the United States Senate to ratify.

I think the absence of ratification of both of these conventions gets in the way of us presenting the best case that we can.

I am really struck and discouraged by the fact that we are a signator but haven't ratified the U.N. Convention on Elimination of Discrimination Against Women.

The war in Bosnia did not end because the United Nations acted. It ended because President Clinton, backed by a bipartisan coalition in Congress, including Senator McCain, took robust action.

Israel is not perfect, but neither is the United States and neither is any of the member nations of the United Nations.

I do not think blunt and outspoken is actually usually a great qualification for a diplomatic post, but actually for this one, it is.

What is also clear, 68 years after the United Nations was founded in San Francisco, is that an effective United Nations depends on effective American leadership.

It would create more confidence among the Afghan population in the runup to the 2014 elections.

Would you agree that the commitment of the U.S. and NATO allies to a presence might have an effect upon the smoothness of the transition?

I think there are two things that clearly underline Afghan interest in a continuing Western presence of some sort beyond 2014.

I believe that America cannot--indeed, I know that America should not--police every crisis or shelter every refugee.