Britain, America, And Asia: New Cooperation In The Pacific Century

EVENT SERIES:

Thursday, September 29, 2011 - 11:00pm to Friday, September 30, 2011 - 12:00am (ended)

223 Moses Hall 

Sir Nigel Sheinwald
British Ambassador to the United States

For North Americans and Europeans alike, ensuring that a newly enriched and strengthened Asia becomes a partner in the international system, and not an adversary, will be one of the dominant themes of the new century.  The EU and US need to build an effective transatlantic partnership on Asia-Pacific issues, a partnership that fits the challenges and opportunities of the 21st century. In a globalised world the interests of European, North American and Asian powers are bound together; the challenge is how to satisfy those interests and find ways to accommodate or overcome the inevitable differences in perspective between the established and the rising powers.

At the same time, we should be careful not to over-estimate or misinterpret the change that is occurring in the world, or to become paralysed by fear of Western decline. Even while China and India grow faster and catch up with the global economy, the products and innovations of the future are being developed and designed in America and Europe, and European investment in the US and American investment in Europe dwarf anything that of China, India or other Asia-Pacific powers.