PTI

Washington, Jul 14: Democratic presidential hopeful Barack Obama has advocated "tough, thoughtful and realistic" foreign policy for the US, and said that an open-ended commitment by Washington on Iraq was a "strategic mistake".     

"...I think that we have to have a clear sense of what our values are and what our ideals are. I don't think that we should shy away from being straight with the Russians about human rights violations," Obama said in an interview to CNN.     

"We should not shy away from talking to the Chinese about those same subjects ... We have to be tough negotiators with them when it comes to critical issues," he said.     

"We have to engage and get them involved and brought into dealing with some of these transnational problems. And that kind of tough, thoughtful, realistic diplomacy used to be a bipartisan hallmark of US foreign policy.     

"And one of the things that I want to do, if I have the honour of being president, is to try to bring back the kind of foreign policy that characterised the Truman administration with Marshall and Acheson and Kennan," Obama said.     

Harry S Truman was the US President from 1945 to 1953 — the period marking the end of Second World War and beginning of the Cold War.     

"We need to show leadership through consensus and through pulling people together wherever we can. There are going to be times where we have to act unilaterally to protect our interests. And I always reserve the right to do that, should I be commander-in-chief," he added.     

Obama also criticised Bush administration for making an open-ended commitment to Iraq, saying it was a "mistake".