He was briefing media along with the Belgium Ambassador Hans-Christian Kint on the Asia-Europe Meeting (ASEM) scheduled to be held on September 4 to 5 in Belgium. However, the EU Ambassador made it clear that the GSP-plus status to Pakistan will not be changed till 2013.
Giving details about the ASEM meeting, Kint said the moot would mainly focus on economic issues especially sustainable development of the 48 participating countries of Europe and Asia. Moreover, he said global issues including nuclear, terrorism and crime as well as issues related to the climate change would also be thoroughly discussed in the meeting.
The regional issues would also be discussed at various meetings in the two-day summit at the EU headquarter, he added. To a question, the EU Ambassador said Pakistan situation with respect to floods would not be exclusively focused on in the summit as it is not a bilateral rather a multilateral summit and would broadly cover issues relating to the member states.
However, he said, it would be an opportunity for Prime Minister Syed Yousuf Raza Gilani as to how he could be able to highlight and project the devastation caused by the worst-ever floods in the history of Pakistan. Kok said Europe wants to strengthen its relations with Asia and other blocs, adding that Europe is a soft power and did not want reinventing the era of 1960s and 1970s. He highlighted that the ASEM is an important platform as 50 percent global wealth, 60 percent global population as well as 60 percent global trade is among the member countries of the organisation.
The EU Ambassador strongly advocated strengthening of democracy, linking it with the stability in the respective countries. To a question, he said the EU has always supported dialogue to resolve the conflicting issues across the world. "We are not only concerned about the violence in Kashmir but also in Gaza as well as Pakistan and India," he maintained.
When asked whether the EU favours dialogue process with Taliban in Afghanistan, the ambassador said the Union would not only favour talks with Taliban but also all other groups, which renounce violence and join the peace process. At the same time, he said, use of force and dialogue must be continued simultaneously to overcome the menace of terrorism and extremism. Kint strongly urged to boost regional trade by opening regional borders for increasing trade and business activities among the regional countries and cited 80 percent regional trade among the EU countries.