Germany – A Land of Innovations

Her Excellency Ina Lepel, Ambassador of the Federal Republic of Germany to Pakistan Being located at the heart of Europe and being Europe’s biggest economy, Germany currently faces several challenges at the same time. While we are reinvesting in our infrastructure and while our companies and universities push for our country’s modernisation, we are at the same time confronted with the continuing full-scale invasion of Ukraine by Russia which the Kremlin is pursuing with unchanged brutality and blatant disregard for the most basic rules of international law. Our geographical position and our national security interest leave us with no other alternative but to continue supporting the Government of Ukraine and its valiant people in their war of resistance and at the same time enhance our own defence capabilities. While challenges at home and in our neighbourhood are our priority number one, we continue to actively foster our friendships and partnerships on other continents in order to become more broad-based in our business relations and at the same time work on a security architecture which upholds the rule of law and prevents war or escalation. Pakistan has been a friend of Germany for many decades and remains a crucial partner ever since diplomatic relations were established in 1951 – exactly 75 years ago. The summer has just started, but at the German Missions in Pakistan, we can already say that 2026 has been a good year for German-Pakistani friendship. While the recent exchanges of H. E. the Chancellor of the Federal Republic of Germany, Mr Friedrich Merz, with H. E. the Prime Minister of the Islamic Republic of Pakistan, Mr Mian Muhammad Shehbaz Sharif, as well as regular contact between Federal Ministers show the importance both our countries attribute to the bilateral relations, it is first and foremost at the people-to-people level that our deep bonds can be seen: While German-Pakistani industrial and commercial relations have been expanding, especially in th