"As an important participant and beneficiary of the economic globalization process, China is practicing what it preaches on opposing protectionism and will never use protectionism to fight against protectionism."

Chinese Minister of Commerce Chen Deming, in his article published in La Repubblica, an Italian newspaper, on July 6

"The U.S. dollar is still the most important international reserve currency of the day, and for years to come. That's the reality."

Chinese Vice Foreign Minister He Yafei, telling a news briefing in Rome on July 5 that the creation of a supranational reserve currency is not the position of the Chinese Government

"We will have a new honeymoon until the end of this year and then it depends on how they succeed in improving the general atmosphere."

Fyodor Lukyanov, editor of Russia in Global Affairs magazine, after Russian and U.S. presidents Dmitry Medvedev and Barack Obama agreed on July 6 to reach a new nuclear arms reduction pact to replace the 1991 Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty

"We do not see interest, we only see vague, uncoordinated interest in high-profile issues such as influenza—which is in itself a great risk, but not the only one."

Tammam Aloudat, senior officer for health in emergencies of the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies, contrasting the international community's "complacency" toward the impact of communicable diseases on poor countries with responses to flu or heart disease in rich nations

"The end of the G8 must be prepared. There is a fundamental contradiction in maintaining this small team when it itself has turned over the big issues to the G20."

Charles Wyplosz, a research fellow with the Institut de Hautes Etudes Internationales in Geneva, joining in calls for the abolition of the Group of Eight industrialized nations that is widely considered ineffectual in the face of the worldwide financial crisis

"You don't see any other nation or government or even private organizations where you have equally important 192 shareholders."

UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon, who is midway through his five-year term, talking about his job as head of the largest world body in an interview with the Associated Press