The European Union (EU) is going to have its first-ever summit with Pakistan on June 17 in Brussels. In Asia the EU has only three strategic partners, namely China, India and Japan, with whom it holds standard annual and occasionally half-yearly summits. Britain is the only country in Europe that holds annual summits with Pakistan. However, even these purportedly annual summits are irregular and have often been mired in controversy whenever a terrorist attack takes place in the UK or terrorist plots are unraveled and foiled by British agencies. Thus, the first summit between the EU and Pakistan is bound to generate interest in South Asia as well as in Europe.
The EU is hosting a summit neither with a country that is a strategic partner nor of significant economic importance. The newly announced EU-Pakistan Summit stems from the urgent concern of security, and more precisely counter-terrorism. The summit would be held under the aegis of the incumbent Czech presidency.
Please read the full Article by Alok Rashmi Mukhopadhyay on : http://www.idsa.in/publications/stratcomments/AlokMukhopadhyay120609.htm
Brigadier Sukhwindar Singh
www.svipja.com
Credit: The IDSA, www.idsa.in, A Think Tank of India on Matters Defence.
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