UN, July 14 (RIA Novosti) - A roundtable has been held at the UN to pay tribute to ex-Soviet foreign minster Andrei Gromyko ahead of what would have been the 100th birthday of the man labeled "Mister No" in the West.
Gromyko, born July 18, 1909 in what is now Belarus, earned a reputation as a stern, uncompromising negotiator during almost three decades as the Soviet Union's top diplomat, from 1957-1985.
However, his son Anatoly, a member of the Russian Academy of Sciences, told Monday's roundtable that his father had never really understood the "Mister No" label, saying that, "Yes, I do often say 'nyet!' to them, but I hear 'no' more often from them. And do you know why? Because we put forward a lot more proposals than they do."
During the UN roundtable, former U.S. secretary of state Kissinger, 86, who had many years of tough Cold War talks with Gromyko, recalled an incident in Moscow.
"When we were in Moscow for the summit I said to Gromyko: 'Our Xerox machine [in the U.S. embassy] has broken down, Mr. Foreign Minister. If I hold my document up to the ceiling will you give me a copy then?' And he said: 'Unfortunately, the cameras were installed by the tsars - they are very good for people, but they are not very good for documents'."
Kissinger also said that he had always admired Gromyko for his ability to respect the other side, even during tense negotiations.
"I think of him as an important colleague who defended the interests of his country with enormous skill, with enormous persistence. And he always understood that the peace of the world depends on recognizing that there are objectives beyond the simple assertion of national interest," Kissinger said.
The roundtable was chaired by Russia's UN envoy Vitaly Churkin and Kiyotaka Akasaka, United Nations Under-Secretary-General for Communications and Public Information, also attended.
Gromyko, who served under five Soviet leaders, from Nikita Khrushchev to Mikhail Gorbachev, took part in countless vital Cold War talks during his career, including a meeting with U.S. leader John Kennedy during the 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis. He also played a major role in the process of detente. He was Soviet ambassador to the U.S. from 1943 to 1946 and the Soviet Union's representative on the UN Security Council from 1946 to 1952.
He also played a significant part in the design of the UN system in the years before the 1945 signing of its Charter.
Gromyko was made a member of the Politburo in 1973 and Chairman of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet in 1985. However, he was forced out of the later post in 1988 during the perestroika era, reportedly because of his ultra-conservative views. He died one year later at the age of 79.
