Federal Minister for Climate Change Musadik Malik has said that Pakistan wants closer cooperation with Germany in green entrepreneurship, sustainable innovation and research, with a view to developing climate-friendly solutions that can be taken to global markets. He was speaking at a ceremony in Islamabad marking the Day of German Unity, where he also carried greetings from the prime minister to Germany and welcomed the peaceful reunification of the country. The minister said Pakistan hoped to draw on Germany’s innovation system to build a startup culture centred on green and sustainable ideas.
The minister said researchers and young innovators should be encouraged to turn their work into viable businesses and not depend only on grants. He added that Pakistan’s exposure to environmental risks, especially floods, makes home-grown solutions necessary, and that such solutions could also find buyers abroad. He voiced confidence that links with German research and innovation institutions would help create a strong green startup ecosystem and new opportunities for young entrepreneurs.
On trade, the minister described Germany as one of Pakistan’s closest friends and its largest trading counterpart in Europe, and said Pakistan wants to widen its economic and trade ties. He said Pakistan is committed to meeting the conditions needed to keep its GSP Plus status, which gives it duty-free access to European Union markets, and that it wants to show compliance with the standards rather than ask for concessions. Reflecting on German reunification, he said it showed the lasting power of popular will, and that unity built on mutual respect and shared humanity can outlast differences of language, culture or religion.
The minister also pointed to historical and cultural links, recalling the time that the poet-philosopher Allama Muhammad Iqbal spent in Heidelberg, where he studied the works of Goethe, and welcoming Germany’s decision to name a road after Iqbal. He also cited the life of the German-born doctor Ruth Pfau, who devoted her career to treating leprosy in Pakistan, as an example of humanitarian ties between the two countries. He noted that 15 October marked 75 years of diplomatic relations, and said the anniversary was a chance to renew a shared commitment to friendship, humanitarian cooperation and sustainability. At the same event, German Ambassador Ina Lepel said that about 13,000 Pakistanis now study at German universities and that German development cooperation with Pakistan has reached about 4 billion euros since 1961.
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