German Ambassador Dr Gunter Mulack on Friday said European Union (EU) is the largest market, even bigger than the United States of America, with 8.5 trillion Euro GDP and offers better opportunities to do business to all its trading partners even outside the Union.
Mulack was speaking on "The role of European Union in World Peace" at a dinner meeting of the Karachi Council on Foreign Relations, Economics Affairs and Law held at the Defence Club. He said that the recently concluded Treaty of Lisbon permits a country within the EU to do business with a country outside EU despite disagreements of other members of the EU on the choice of a country.
He said earlier, one out of the 26 countries within the EU had the power to veto a business idea floated by another EU member with a country outside EU. Now, he said that the disagreement of members would not deter an EU country from entering into a business contract with any country of the world. Yesterday it was mostly two-thirds majority that dictated its terms but now the "yesterday has gone", he added.
He said that the Lisbon Treaty has enlarged EU's scope beyond simply remaining a trade and commerce specific organisation. Now the body would look into foreign affairs and soon there will be a foreign minister of the EU. "Now you will be having a telephone number of EU which could be contacted in emergency. The foreign minister would respond to your questions." We want to strengthen the EU so that it could deliver. I hope this process will make EU a better actor in the world.
He said it is not only commerce or economy that will bring peace to world. "We (EU) have to play a political role as well." He briefly touched upon the effort Germany in particular and the EU in general have been making toward world peace and referred to ESDP (European Security Development Plan) and said that it would look beyond military means to secure peace in the region and subsequently in the world. The plan includes to developing military crisis management expertise as well as systems to deal with civilian issues of immediate concern.
He said though EU doesn't have the capacity to match with the capacity of the United Nations but still ESDP will play its role effectively. "We do not want to become a competitor of the UN but we want to play our role."
He said in this age of globalisation, security threats are of different kinds. There are drug trafficking, organised crimes, acts of terrorism and weapons of mass destruction to deal with. Countries should think about them and deal with the co-operation of other friendly countries.
Mulack said that globalisation has brought both challenges and prospects of development. He referred to Kashmir dispute between India and Pakistan and said the issue needed solution. He said that Pakistan and India should engage in dialogue and try to reconcile with the past and begin a fresh chapter of friendship. "The policy of revenge would not pay." He said Germany favours dialogue and "we know that it works". He acknowledged that the process of dialogues between India and Pakistan in the past had been a success.
He said Germany had Poland, France and few other countries as its worst enemies but today there is unity and friendship among us. "We in Europe believe in policy of reconciliation and peace with everyone.
Mulack talked about Germany's relation with African and Asian countries and said there is emphasis on developing mutual trust and confidence. He said that there would no peace in the Palestinian region in the near future. As long as the present US government exists, there are less chances of a peace treaty to succeed. "I do not see any prospect of peace in Palestine in coming years. If you want peace, you will have to take Hammas, Hizbollah and other stakeholders on board. There will be change in US soon but that too does not guarantee any good in the region. A new round of dialogue is one way of achieving objective in the region. I have seen so many conferences, meetings and resolutions but there is no result. Nothing has happened so far."
To a question he said OIC is not effective. Muslims will have to set their own house in order before other begins to take them seriously. It is only after Muslims have settled their own issues and taken OIC "from Oh I see syndrome" something favourable to them would happen. Lieutenant General Moinuddin Haider (Retd) gave concluding remarks.
Comments
Comments are closed.