Pakistan, Austria cooperation in education, a pleasant surprise for Andrea Wicke
Zubair Qureshi
Ambassador-designate of Austria Andrea Wicke at a reception marking Austria’s National Day expressed her pleasure and surprise at the level of cooperation between the Pakistani and the Austrian universities and termed it quite promising for the youth of the two countries.
It was though a small reception yet one could see big names of the diplomatic community attending the event to greet the newly arrived ambassador-designate and her husband Venzislav Wicke-Dermendjiev on the auspicious day.
The ambassador-designate who is scheduled to present her credentials to President Dr Arif Alvi struck the positive note that the bilateral relations between Austria and Pakistan were “excellent and friendly.”
“Having recently arrived, I can see that among other things, there is a great cooperation of universities of applied sciences that even match their curricula of their Bachelor studies to make a regular exchange of students possible. Pakistan-Austria Fachhochschule established in Haripur district of KP is fully functional and is a great example of cooperation between Austria and Pakistan,” she said.
In the framework of cultural projects, there are Austrians who immerse into Pakistani traditional music and participate in each other’s art and projects, she said. She said that she was convinced that art as well as people-to-people contacts were the basis of all good understanding and appreciation of each other and hoped that she would be able to continue and deepen the precious work further during her years in “this very hospitable country.”While sharing her country’s concerns about the Russian aggression in Ukraine, she said although it was a war on the European continent yet it was still a war with severe global consequences and the aggressor was using energy and food as a weapon.
Austria she said was proud to make every effort to relieve the pain and misery of the civilian population in Ukraine and apart from its contributions in the framework of the EU, Austrian has provided direct humanitarian aid worth 80 Million Euros and remains a partner in the international relief operations.
