| |
Strengthening Pak-German ties
Dr Jassim Taqui
Deputy Editor (IR)
THE Pak-German relations need to be revised in accordance with new
realities in South Asia, NATO’s expansion, its proactive role in
Afghanistan, and promotion of trade between the two countries.
These were the main features of a two-day roundtable on
Pakistan-German Dialogue organized by the Institute of Strategic
Studies, Islamabad (ISSI) in collaboration with Hanns Seidel
Foundation, Munich and Stiftung Wissenschaft und Politik (SWP),
Berlin on April 9-10, 2008.
Mr. Inam ul Haque, Chairman, ISSI, in his opening remarks said that
Pakistan and Germany have had good bilateral relations over the
years and Pakistan looked at Germany as a partner in the fight
against terrorism and also as an economic partner. Mr. Asbeck hoped
that the practical recommendations will come out of the dialogue,
which would lead to better understanding the issues of interest and
concern for Pakistan and Germany.
In her presentation, Mrs. Lepel DCM, Germany Embassy , stressed the
importance of people-to-people contact in strengthening the
Pakistan-German relations. On the issue of Pak-EU relations, Lepel
said that the EU was the largest trading partner of Pakistan with
29% of Pakistan’s exports being sent to the EU and Germany was the
second largest trading partner within the EU apart from Britain. Ms.
Lepel was of the view that the bilateral trade would increase as a
result of recent developments such as the expansion of the German
wholesale market, Metro, to Islamabad and other cities, resumption
of Lufthansa flights and the increasing number of Pakistani
companies participating in the German Trade Fair.
Ambassador Ezdi, opined that the future of Pakistan-German relations
would depend on three main elements. Firstly, whether the current
intensification of bilateral relations is a function of German
involvement in Afghanistan or is based on a better recognition of
Pakistan’s pivotal position in the stability of the entire region.
Secondly, whether Germany recognizes that the stability of the
region is linked to Pakistan possessing a credible nuclear deterrent
and conventional capability and that a unilateral approach favoring
India will create imbalances which could be destabilizing. Thirdly,
the threat of Islamic radicalization in Pakistan is grossly
exaggerated as evident from the outcome of February 2008 elections.
In her remarks, Ms. Fauzia Nasreen, the session chair, said that the
issues of Generalized System of Preferences GSP plus, the Free Trade
Agreement (FTA), anti-dumping duty on Pakistani bed-linen and the
seafood ban imposed by the EU were important trade issues that need
to be resolved to improve Pakistan-EU relations.
Col. Walter Huhn from the Policy and Advisory Staff, German Ministry
of Defense gave his presentation on the German
Civil-Military-Engagement in Afghanistan. He said that Germany
focuses on regional cooperation to promote peace in Afghanistan and
in this context Pakistan is very important. He said, Germany has
only 4,000 troops deployed in the northern Afghan region.
Dr. Wagner of Stiftung Wiseenschaft und Politik (SWP) stated that in
the EU’s engagement with India the EU has been explicit in its
desire to form a strategic partnership with India and has not taken
similar steps with other South Asian nations, namely Pakistan. There
are, according to Dr Wagner four aspects of EU’s engagement with
India: the interests of both parties, the instruments by which these
interests established, the focus of the relationship, and finally
challenges to the relationship.
The EU and India have convergent interests in the matter of
alleviating poverty, in particular for achieving the millennium
development goals in the country, and in regard to increasing trade,
scientific know how, and technological research.
Dr. Shireen Mazari spoke of the wider context of Pak-India relations
focusing on three main aspects of that relationship: Bilateral
talks, regional issues, and global aspects of the relationship. As
far as bilateral talks were concerned the Director General said that
despite the bilateral talks entering into their fifth round, the
actual results of these talks have not gone beyond atmospherics and
on the main issues of conflict between Pakistan and India no
progress has been made. Pakistan has made various attempts to engage
the Indian government on the main issues of contention, but India
has backed out on each of them; whereas Pakistan wishes to
concentrate on conflict resolution the Indians would rather
concentrate on conflict management in that way leaving the issues of
contention open; on Kashmir India does not wish any third party
facilitator to participate in negotiations, on the issue of the ;Siachen
Glacier accords were signed by both parties in 1989, but India
ultimately backed out and their disregard for Pakistan came to a
point where they opened the adventure tourism as though the land
were not even disputed territory, finally on the issue of Sir Creek;
Pakistan is willing to make concessions but India has not
acknowledged them as relevant. As a side note though issues of
shared water sources have been alluded to in various agreements
between Pakistan an India, but India continues to flout its
agreements as though they had never taken place.
Regionally India desires a greater presence in Afghanistan and this
is very detrimental for Pak-Afghan relations and all indications
suggest that this relationship is very close. Globally, the United
States of America is the main factor in the relationship between
India and Pakistan. The United States desire for a strategic
partnership with India is ultimately going to exacerbate the tension
in the region. Any anti-ballistic missile cooperation will compel
Pakistan to respond in proportion with more extensive and varied
nuclear arsenal. Thus, any forward progress that India and Pakistan
could make on their issues of contention will be undermined by
purely military nature of relationship between the US and India
which compels Pakistan, which is otherwise willing to negotiate, to
move to a more militaristic position.
Such a situation requires creative solutions and one suggestion made
by Dr. Mazari was that Pakistan and India should cooperate on issues
of nuclear energy. Such cooperation is not unprecedented, Pakistan
and India already exchange lists of nuclear sites, and will build
real trust between both nations as well as prove huge beneficial to
both.
|
