The times when we could fully count on others are over to a certain extent.

We all want to be honest and draw lessons from the past, the WHO is the only international organization that has universal political legitimacy on global health issues. This is why it's so important to render its structures more efficient.

I am courageous at the decisive moment. But I need a good deal of start-up time, and I try to take as much as possible into consideration beforehand.

Always be more than you appear and never appear to be more than you are.

There's a rumour going around that states cannot go bankrupt. This rumour is not true.

The European Union and the United States of America are the big important economic areas for us, which is why I always have come up strongly in favor of concluding a trade agreement with the United States of America.

We were able to conclude a Paris climate agreement, which will lead the way for the rest of the world, which is groundbreaking. And together with the sustainable development goals of the agenda 2030 for the whole world, this is indeed a sea change, I think, that we see here, and, step-by-step, it will be implemented.