Celebrating 26 Years of German Reunification
On the 3rd of October 2016, we celebrate 26 years of German reunification. With festivities and events all over Germany and abroad we commemorate this day with joy and gratitude as it marks a truly historic day – not only for Germany, but also for Europe and the world.
We laud the courageous people who brought about a peaceful revolution in Eastern Europe and triggered the fall of the Berlin Wall. They stood up for their fundamental freedoms and rights, for the rule of law and true self-determination – the pillars of democracy and the foundation of our prosperous social, economic and political system.
These events paved the way for German reunification and marked the end of the Cold War and European division.
Our hopes, however, that – with the end of the bi-polar cold war system – a more peaceful and solidary world order would arise, have not materialized. Instead, we are facing multiple new challenges such as the asymmetric threat of international terrorism and a growing number of armed conflicts worldwide, in particular in the wartorn Middle East. Today, around 60 million people fleeing from war, repression and humanitarian crises need our solidarity and assistance. Even in Europe, where we have enjoyed the longest period ever of peace, stability and prosperity, old conflicts and nationalist reflexes are surfacing again. Moreover, we are facing serious new global challenges such as climate change, natural disasters, energy security, water management and food safety.
To face these multiple challenges in an increasingly interdependent and global world, international and regional cooperation is more important than ever. There are no easy solutions to major challenges such as the refugee and migration crisis or climate change – and certainly no national ones. We can only solve them together in a joint and sustained effort.
Germany is therefore strongly committed to closely engage with partners around the world and is prepared to take responsibility and to make an active contribution to peace, security and prosperity in Europe and beyond. We do so as an active and responsible partner in the EU and the UN as well as in various other formats and organizations such as G7, G20, NATO and OSCE. European integration remains the undisputed centerpiece of our foreign policy – even more so after the Brexit referendum – and we stay strongly committed to EU solidarity and cohesion. While this year, in the midst of the Ukraine crisis, Germany chairs the OSCE we will also be holding the G20 presidency in 2017 and, within the UN, play an active role for achieving its Sustainable Development Goals and for the implementation of the Paris Climate Agreement.
The Kingdom of Thailand is one of our closest partners in Southeast Asia. In the UN and in other international fora we constructively cooperate on many issues. Thailand has repeatedly demonstrated its strong commitment to multilateral cooperation by hosting important international conferences such as the 2016 OSCE Asian Conference on Strengthening Comprehensive Security this June. In October, Thailand will host the 21st EU-ASEAN Ministerial Meeting in Bangkok, which aims at raising the partnership between EU and ASEAN to the level of a “strategic partnership” enhancing in particular strategic and security policy cooperation. Moreover, Thailand – currently chairing the G77-Group of Developing Countries within the UN framework – is a valuable partner in our efforts to tackle climate change and we jointly work towards implementing the sustainable development goals.
Our close partnership on these global issues is equally reflected in our close and multifaceted, future-oriented bilateral relations, officially established more than 150 years ago. Thai-German economic cooperation is a long success story. Germany is Thailand’s most important trading partner in Europe and more than 600 German companies successfully do business in Thailand. Cooperation projects cover a wide range of issues with a special focus on vocational training, environmental protection and climate-friendly new technologies, renewable energies, food safety and economic sustainability.
Thailand today is home to some 30,000 permanent residents from Germany and a tourist destination for roughly 700,000 Germans every year. At the same time, some 50,000 Thais have found a new home in Germany. These numbers give a good impression of the intensity of the Thai-German friendship that transcends all fields of cooperation.
With almost 200 different cooperation projects between German and Thai universities and rising numbers of exchange students and teachers, research and academic cooperation is particularly well developed. For more than 50 years the Goethe-Institut Thailand and its partners have offered German language training and a huge variety of cultural projects – triggering a lively cultural exchange. Please pay a visit to Soi Goethe and check out the institute’s media center or see a performance in the newly-renovated Goethe Hall with its manifold cultural offer.
While praising the excellent bilateral relations, I am, however, very much aware that it is, above all, the intense people-topeople contact that makes the difference. Numerous private associations, friendship groups and outstanding individuals in both our countries deserve credit for the deep and strong friendship between Thailand and Germany because they are the ones who unremittingly work to bring people together. Celebrating the Day of German Unity with our friends and partners here in Thailand is, therefore, also an excellent opportunity to celebrate the long-lasting friendship and relations between our people and nations.