GBF Conference on China, India and Europe in November 2006 urges energy cooperation and constructive US role
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The US government must take the lead in cutting emissions of greenhouse gases to persuade the governments of China and India to follow, international financier George Soros told the GBF conference. |
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He was cautiously optimistic that the US midterm elections would lead to a shift in US policy on climate change, increasingly supported by business. Soros criticised US policies on Iraq, which he said had led to a “disaster”. International cooperation on energy and business were major themes of the two-day conference addressed by 50 speakers, attended by over 300 delegates from business, finance, politics, diplomacy and academe. Zha Peixin, Chinese Ambassador to the UK, said, “India, China and Europe should more than ever strengthen their cooperation.” Typical of the upbeat tone on China was the comment from Dr.-Ing Hong Li-Thomalla of Pfleiderer Track Systems who said Napoleon was right when he predicted that China would "shake the world." Kamalesh Sharma, Indian High Commissioner to London, said of India and China: “These are not just economies, these are civilisations. North and South are evaporating before our eyes.” Prof. Harold James, Professor of History at Princeton University, argued for a sense of history in pondering the new international balance. Dr. Bernd Pfaffenbach, State Secretary at the German Economics and Technology Ministry, rejected the view that Germany was following a bilateral path towards Moscow and said Russia had to become an integral part of the world economy through more multilateral links. |
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GBF Awards 2006 |
The Globalisation Debate |
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| Sir Peter Jonas, former General Director, Bavarian State Opera | Mayor Horst Förther, representing the City of Nuremberg | |
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Click here for text transcripts & film extracts from The Globalisation Debate |
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