The influential foreign politician and US senator Richard Lugar died at the age of 87 years. The former Republican presidential candidate succumbed to a rare nerve disease in a clinic in Virginia on Sunday, according to the Lugar Center in Washington in 2013, founded by him.
Lugar was twice the chairman of the Senate Foreign Affairs Committee, and because of his binding nature, he was seen across party lines. He was a man of soft tones and was considered one of the most influential voices on foreign policy issues in Washington.
Willingness to cooperate with other parties
The State of Indiana, he represented 36 years as a US Senator. His reputation was also based on his willingness to work with other parties. In 1991, together with Democratic Senator Sam Nunn, he drafted the Nunn-Lugar program, which helped former Soviet republics reduce their nuclear weapons.
The Democratic presidential candidate Pete Buttigieg honored Lugar on Sunday as a "real statesman". "He made the world safer," wrote South Bend Mayor of Indiana in the Twitter short message service.
America has lost a true statesman in Dick Lugar. A great mayor, senator, and mentor, he made the world safer, stood up for better foreign policy, and knew how to work across the aisle. https://t.co/wD9XwElEbY
- Pete Buttigieg (@PeteButtigieg) April 28, 2019President Barack Obama awarded Lugar the Freedom Medal, the United States' highest civilian honor, in 2013 for its "decency" and "commitment to nonpartisan problem solving."
Lugar pushed for an end to apartheid in South Africa and pushed for a deposition of Philippine dictator Ferdinand Marcos - both in opposition to the then Republican President Ronald Reagan.
The foreign minister applied for his party's candidacy for the 1996 presidential election. However, the intellectual Rhodes scholar had to admit lack of charisma and later withdrew his application.
Even after leaving the Senate in 2013, he remained committed to non-proliferation of nuclear weapons. He leaves a wife and four children.