EC President Stresses Need to Share Diversity in EU-Asia Relations

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Last updated at: (Beijing Time) Sunday, July 07, 2002

EC President Stresses Need to Share Diversity in EU-Asia Relations

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Achievements in the course of European integration have been built on respect for diversity and pluralism, which are fundamental values in the process, said European Commission President Romano Prodi in Singapore on Saturday.

Prodi, who is on his first trip to South East Asia, made the remarks when he was delivering the 22nd Singapore Lecture under the theme of "EU-Asia Relations: Sharing Diversity in an Inter-regional Partnership", which was chaired by Singaporean Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Finance Lee Hsien Loong.

Addressing an audience of several hundred, Prodi said that diversity defines the relations between two entities that are not identical and diversity in nations and cultures, in interests and objectives creates the need for an effort towards convergence"so that we can work together." "It characterizes the regional structures we are building in Europe and Asia, and indeed our inter-regional partnership,"he said.

Asia is one of the world's great spiritual and cultural cradles and it can pride itself on the diversity of its cultural heritage, said the bespectacled Italian.

"Europe and Asia will never be melting-pots where cultures merge and disappear,"he stressed.

Speaking of globalization, Prodi noted that a world of increasing interdependence needs fair rules on global governance, because "there are issues no individual country can deal with on its own."

Prodi took office as president of the European Commission in Sept. 1999. Before this appointment, he was Prime Minister of Italy from 1996 to 1998, during which he prepared his country to meet the economic criteria for joining the European common currency (Euro) on Jan. 1, 2002.

Organized by the Institute of Southeast Asian Studies, the Singapore Lecture series is designed to provide an opportunity fordistinguished statesmen and leaders of thought and knowledge to reach a wider audience in Singapore.

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