Germany tells Pakistan

By Muhammad Saleh Zaafir & Asim Yasin

BERLIN: Germany has advised Pakistan to improve its governance for the sake of boosting its economy. The restoration of the superior judiciary has been helping in strengthening institutions in Pakistan.

The piece of advice came from the leading European nation here on Tuesday in a news conference jointly addressed by visiting Prime Minister Syed Yusuf Raza Gilani and German Chancellor Angela Merkel after their bilateral talks in the German Chancellery.

The advice by the chancellor to improve the governance and comments on Pakistan’s judiciary were conspicuous since Germany has been supporting Pakistan in different spheres for various endeavours.

Both Pakistan and Germany announced to maintain their strategic political dialogue for further cooperation in the economic, energy, investment and technology transfer.

“We will continue to support Pakistan in the war against terror and will do every thing for the development of Pakistan,” said German Chancellor Angela Merkel in the joint press conference after her meeting with Prime Minister Gilani.

“We have decided to upgrade and devise a roadmap for cooperation between the two countries,” said Prime Minister Gilani.

Gilani and Merkel discussed enhanced defence cooperation in areas of training, defence procurement and production during their meeting on Tuesday.

The defence cooperation between the two countries was put on a freeze following the nuclear tests by Pakistan and India in 1998.

In the press conference, Merkel said Germany had offered the assistance in the field of the education that will help to curtail the menace of terrorism. She said Germany was helping Pakistan in the framework of Friends of Democratic Pakistan (FoDP).

She said investment protection treaty between the two countries would lay the solid foundation for further cooperation between the two countries. She said under the FoDP, Germany has tried to stabilize economic situation of Pakistan, helping the IMF to support the country and hoped this is indeed in interest of Pakistan.

Gilani said Germany being one of the largest economies of the European Union can assist Pakistan for greater access to its goods to the European markets.

Asked about the German future policy regarding Afghanistan, Merkel said Germany would make its point on troops increase in Afghanistan following the Afghanistan conference on Afghanistan on Jan 28.

When asked about the trade facilities to Pakistan under the GSP for market access in European Union, she said: “The government will show constructive attitude and encourage the EU to promote these matters. The strategic importance of Pakistan is seen by all and other members of the EU are understood to have seen its importance.”

While in an opening statement, Gilani said, “In the battle for hearts and minds, in the quest to give our people, the hope of a better tomorrow, greater trade remains a strategic imperative.”

The prime minister appreciated the German chancellor for her country’s support to the FoDP with pledging $155 million at the Tokyo Donors Conference.

He informed the German chancellor about the success of the counter-terrorism operations in South Waziristan and said now the government’s priority was relief and rehabilitation of the returnees in affected areas and reconstruction of the damaged infrastructure and property.

He said Pakistan looks forward to German assistance to share the burden for the reconstruction of areas affected by terrorism, extremism and militancy.

Both leaders also exchanged views on overall security situation in this region, with particular reference to Afghanistan.

He said being Afghanistan’s immediate neighbour, Pakistan must be onboard to ensure sustainability of peace and stability in Afghanistan.

Merkel said because of Germany’s own interest in Afghanistan, it desires improvement in relations between Pakistan and Afghanistan. “We wish to strengthen relations between the two,” she added.

Meanwhile, the German government declined to give an outright undertaking to Pakistan regarding immediate removal of laws coming in the way of provision of defence equipment to Pakistan.

Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani had extensive talks with the German leaders including its president, chancellor, president of the German Parliament and chairman of the Foreign Relations Committee here in the German capital and impressed upon the need to remove all restrictions on supplies for Pakistan’s defence requirements.

The German chancellor expressed her inability in the wake of the restrictions imposed by the successive administrations. She was sympathetic to Pakistan’s request in this regard.

In the meantime, Pakistan and Germany have agreed to set up strategic dialogue of the two countries. The dialogue would be on the echelon of the foreign ministers and it would cater various aspects of the bilateral ties.