Her Excellency Ina Lepel, Ambassador of the Federal Republic of Germany to Pakistan
Being located at the heart of Europe and being Europe’s biggest economy, Germany currently faces several challenges at the same time. While we are reinvesting in our infrastructure and while our companies and universities push for our country’s modernisation, we are at the same time confronted with the continuing full-scale invasion of Ukraine by Russia which the Kremlin is pursuing with unchanged brutality and blatant disregard for the most basic rules of international law. Our geographical position and our national security interest leave us with no other alternative but to continue supporting the Government of Ukraine and its valiant people in their war of resistance and at the same time enhance our own defence capabilities.
While challenges at home and in our neighbourhood are our priority number one, we continue to actively foster our friendships and partnerships on other continents in order to become more broad-based in our business relations and at the same time work on a security architecture which upholds the rule of law and prevents war or escalation. Pakistan has been a friend of Germany for many decades and remains a crucial partner ever since diplomatic relations were established in 1951 – exactly 75 years ago.
The summer has just started, but at the German Missions in Pakistan, we can already say that 2026 has been a good year for German-Pakistani friendship. While the recent exchanges of H. E. the Chancellor of the Federal Republic of Germany, Mr Friedrich Merz, with H. E. the Prime Minister of the Islamic Republic of Pakistan, Mr Mian Muhammad Shehbaz Sharif, as well as regular contact between Federal Ministers show the importance both our countries attribute to the bilateral relations, it is first and foremost at the people-to-people level that our deep bonds can be seen: While German-Pakistani industrial and commercial relations have been expanding, especially in the textile sector, German companies are looking at the Pakistani mineral sector with increasing interest. Germany and Pakistan are also continuing their proud history as partners in economic cooperation. Since 1961, Germany has contributed 3.7 billion euros (121,360 crore Rs.) to economic cooperation with Pakistan and the German Federal Ministry for Development Cooperation has recently pledged additional 114 million euros (3,600 crore Rs.) for it cooperation with Pakistan.
At the same time, almost 10,000 young Pakistanis are currently studying at German universities. While some of these students return to Pakistan after their course, many stay in Germany at least for a few years, offering their talents to German companies, gaining experience and enhancing business and research cooperation between our two countries.
The potential for even more German-Pakistani cooperation in many of the aforementioned fields is huge and, together with our Pakistani friends, we look forward to removing possible obstacles in order to fully tap into it.
