World leaders past and present paid tribute to Ronald Reagan, remembering the former United States president who died on Saturday as a hero and visionary statesman as well as a friend.
Perhaps the warmest words came from former British prime minister Margaret Thatcher, Reagan’s closest ally and ideological soul mate throughout the 1980s.
”President Reagan was one of my closest political and dearest personal friends,” Thatcher said.
”He will be missed not only by those who knew him, and not only by the nation that he served so proudly and loved so deeply, but also by millions of men and women who live in freedom today because of the policies he pursued.
”Ronald Reagan,” Thatcher said in a statement to Britain’s domestic Press Association, ”had a higher claim than any other leader to have won the Cold War for liberty, and he did it without a shot being fired.
”To have achieved so much against so many odds and with such humour and humanity made Ronald Reagan a truly great American hero.”
Pope John Paul II learned of Reagan’s death with ”great sorrow”, his spokesperson Joaquin Navarro Valls said.
Like Reagan, the 84-year-old Polish head of the Roman Catholic Church, who was visiting Switzerland when Reagan’s death was announced, was also instrumental in the 1980s to bring down the Iron Curtain that split Europe between communist East and capitalist West.
Former Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev said he felt sorrow over the passing of Reagan, with whom he held a key summit that helped end the Cold War.
”For me, Ronald Reagan is a great president,” Gorbachev told Moscow Echo radio. ”I feel deep regret.”
The last Soviet leader first met Reagan on the sidelines of a meeting in Geneva in 1985.
The two held a historic summit in Reykjavik the following year as Reagan launched a series of meetings that led to an easing of tensions, and eventually to the collapse of the Soviet Union.
Former Polish president and Nobel Peace Prize winner Lech Walesa said Reagan contributed to the fall of the ”murderous” communist system.
”Reagan was one of those who cooperated in a tacit agreement to abolish communism, this stupid and murderous system,” he said.
Ronald Reagan, Francois Mitterrand, the Holy Father of course, and others…we all worked to do this and succeeded with skill and precision,” he said.
US President George W. Bush, who was in France for Sunday’s D-Day anniversary celebrations, said Reagan ”leaves behind a nation he restored and a world he helped to save.”
Saturday, he said, according to a White House spokesperson, was ”a sad day for America”.
British Prime Minister Tony Blair said Reagan ”will be remembered as a good friend of Britain.
”The negotiations of arms control agreements in his second term and his statesmanlike pursuit of more stable relations with the Soviet Union helped bring about the end of the Cold War.
”He will be greatly missed by his many friends and admirers on this side of the Atlantic,” Blair said in a statement.
At Buckingham Palace, a spokesperson for Queen Elizabeth II said simply: ”The queen is saddened by the news”.
French President Jacques Chirac paid ”homage to the memory of a great statesman who will leave a deep mark in history because of the strength of his convictions and his commitment to democracy”.
A statement issued by Chirac’s Elysee Palace said the French president was ”saddened and moved” by Reagan’s death.
In Berlin, German President Johannes Rau said he was ”deeply distressed” by the death of the former US president, calling him ”a faithful friend and ally of Germany.”
Singapore’s Deputy Prime Minister Tony Tan underscored Reagan’s legacy of freedom, democracy and what he called the ”magic of the free market”.
”Mr Reagan was a great president,” Tan said. ”He restored the faith of Americans in America, in American values and ideals.”
Former Japanese prime minister Yasuhiro Nakasone praised Reagan for his respect of Japan and Japanese culture. ”He was Japan’s best friend,” Nakasone added.
Arnold Schwarzenegger, who followed in Reagan’s footsteps from Hollywood actor to governor of California, mourned the death of his ”hero”.
”I am deeply saddened by the passing of President Reagan,” Schwarzenegger said in a statement. ”He was a great American patriot. I did not just admire him, I was fortunate enough to know him. He was a hero to me.
Former president George Bush lauded Reagan, saying both he and his son, the current president, had learned a great deal from him.
”I was his vice-president for eight years,” Bush told MSNBC from his home in Kennebunkport, Maine. ”We had been political opponents and we became very close friends.”
Reagan switched from the Democratic to the Republican Party in 1962.
”I think both presidents Bush learned a great deal from Ronald Reagan and I’m sure … that president Bush, the president, has great respect for Ronald Reagan,” said the elder Bush. ”He emulated him in the tax cuts that are now helping our economy to recover.” – Sapa-AFP