Daily Inspiration Quote by Anders Fogh Rasmussen

Diplomacy often masquerades as patience, but Rasmussen is practicing something sharper: compartmentalization as leverage. On its face, he’s blessing the U.N. plan to resolve Cyprus - the polite, consensus-ready position any NATO-minded statesman wants on record. The real payload arrives in the second sentence, where “hopefully” functions as a velvet glove over a hard deadline, and “cannot and will not” slams the door on anyone tempted to use Cyprus as a veto point.

The context is the perennial problem of multilateral politics: small disputes can become procedural chokeholds when big institutions move by unanimity. Cyprus, split since 1974 and tangled in Greek-Turkish rivalry, wasn’t just a regional conflict; it was a live wire running through EU and NATO expansion debates. Rasmussen’s enlargement agenda (and NATO’s credibility) required momentum. A summit is a stage designed to manufacture decisions; letting an unresolved conflict “block” enlargement would reward obstruction and invite more of it.

The subtext is aimed at multiple audiences at once. To Cyprus and its patrons: your issue is important, but not sovereign over the alliance’s strategic timetable. To other members: don’t hide behind Cyprus to slow-walk enlargement for domestic reasons. To aspirant countries: the door remains open; your fate won’t be held hostage by unrelated deadlock.

It works because it packages firmness as responsibility. He signals empathy without granting bargaining power, turning “support” into a boundary rather than a concession.