Qureshi writes to EU foreign ministers

The letters apprise foreign ministers of the bloc of the scale of the disaster and assistance Pakistan needs.

ISLAMABAD: Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi has written letters to his European Union (EU) counterparts, detailing Pakistan’s financial and other needs to deal with the floods.

The letters apprise foreign ministers of the 27-member bloc of the scale of the disaster and assistance Pakistan needs, Qureshi told The Express Tribune on Monday.

The EU has so far topped the list of donor countries with an aid commitment of $200 million for flood victims.

However, Qureshi said Pakistan would need sustained assistance from the developed countries, including the EU.

“We are currently focusing on rescue and relief operations. Once we come out of it then we will need not only financial but also technical assistance from the international community,” he added.

Qureshi said that he has told the EU foreign ministers that aid alone would not help Pakistan deal with the catastrophe.  “We would certainly want greater market access to EU markets,” he said, adding that Islamabad lost billions of dollars due to the calamity.

“Greater market access to EU markets would help Pakistan stand on its own feet once again,” he added.

In his recent visit to New York, Qureshi met his German counterpart and discussed the issue of greater market access. He said Berlin agreed to advocate Pakistan’s case in the EU.

Pakistan believes its economy suffered immensely for being a frontline state in the battle against terrorism and extremism, therefore its products deserve greater market access to EU and US markets.

Some products from Pakistan enter the EU market duty-free or at a reduced rate, but textile products such as bed linen and towels, which account for more than 65 per cent of its exports to the EU, still face a 12 per cent tariff.

Qureshi said the EU had convened a meeting of its foreign ministers next month to discuss Pakistan’s needs, including greater market access in the aftermath of the worst flooding, which killed over 1,600 people and affected 20 million people.

Meanwhile, speaking at “The Charlie Rose Show” on American television, Qureshi said that the world was realising the intensity of the flooding in Pakistan. “This is not just a flood, this is a mega-flood, this is a flood of the century,” he said. “I, the UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon and US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton discussed another possibility of an international event on September 19 here in New York. We have also agreed to an event in Brussels in the European Union,” Qureshi said.

A September 19 event in New York would come at the start of the UN General Assembly. Brussels was already scheduled to hold a meeting in October of the Friends of Democratic Pakistan. (With additional input from AFP)

Published in The Express Tribune, August 24^th, 2010.