Tom Tugendhat pays tribute to 'friend' Henry Kissinger after former US Secretary of State dies aged 100

30 November 2023, 09:55

Tom Tugendhat on Henry Kissinger

Tom Tugendhat has paid tribute to his “friend” former US Secretary of State Henry Kissinger who has died aged 100.

The Security Minister serving in the Home Office revealed that he had only last month shared lunch with the diplomat who served under Presidents Richard Nixon and Gerald Ford.

“I went to his offices in New York. I was speaking on behalf of our country at the United Nations and he very kindly said ‘if you’re in New York you’ve got to come to lunch’,” the minister told LBC’s Nick Ferrari earlier this morning.

He said the two shared lunch for a couple of hours where they discussed ongoing geo-political issues.

“We were talking of course about Israel-Palestine … and he was fascinating. He was not just talking about what we were seeing on the day.

“He had clearly been in touch with members of the Israeli government, and members of the Egyptian government in recent days.

“But he was also taking me right back to 1973 when he was part of the negotiations that ended the 1973 war - that brought peace and the diplomatic relationship between Egypt and Israel in 1975.

Read More: Henry Kissinger was trusted confidant to Nixon until the bitter and bizarre end

Read More: US statesman and former Secretary of State Henry Kissinger dies age 100

Mr Tugendhat added: “Frankly, it was like being at the most extraordinary PhD lecture you’ve ever been at. I left lunch after two months more exhausted than I had been by an entire morning at the UN.”

Mr Tugendhat described his “really good friend” as “incredibly generous” and “kind”.

Tributes to Mr Kissinger also poured in across US politics.

Former President George W Bush called Dr Kissinger "one of the most dependable and distinctive voices on foreign affairs".

"I have long admired the man who fled the Nazis as a young boy from a Jewish family, then fought them in the United States Army," President Bush said.

"When he later became Secretary of State, his appointment as a former refugee said as much about his greatness as it did America's greatness."

The daughters of President Richard Nixon described him as "one of America's most skilled diplomats"

Tricia Nixon Cox and Julie Nixon Eisenhower, said: "On behalf of our family, and of all those who worked with our father and Dr Henry A. Kissinger in a partnership that produced a generation of peace for our nation, we express our deepest condolences on the passing of one of America's most skilled diplomats.

"Dr Kissinger played an important role in the historic opening to the People's Republic of China and in advancing détente with the Soviet Union, bold initiatives which initiated the beginning of the end of the Cold War.

"His 'shuttle diplomacy' to the Middle East helped to advance the relaxation of tensions in that troubled region of the world."