France-Germany peace led Europe to form union

LAHORE: During the course of his speech at the groundbreaking of the Kartarpur Corridor the other day, Pakistani Prime Minister, Imran Khan, had raised a question that if France and Germany could form a union after fighting many bloody wars and open up their borders for trade and investment, why couldn’t the bitter Pak-India relationship move ahead to bring prosperity in the region.

He had noted that after millions of people had lost lives in wars between France and Germany, the two nations had opened borders for each other, asserting that they could not even think of shedding more blood on battle fields after their bilateral business and investment volume had surged manifold. Well, the incumbent Pakistani Premier is absolutely correct in this context and it seems he does spare time out of his pressing engagements to read a bit of global history, a subject that might sound boring, dull and dreary to many who do not believe in the idea of making comparative analysis and learn lessons.

Research conducted by the “Jang Group and Geo Television Network” shows that although the history of the Franco-German animosity dates back to 16th century and both neighbouring nations have faced each other in battle fields nine times since, their bilateral trade volume had rested at 169.4 billion Euros in 2017 after embracing each other in true letter and spirit after World War II.

According to “Reuters” news agency report of February 21, 2018, France remained the second-most important export destination for German goods with purchases of 105.2 billion Euros.

To be continued