FROM EIR DAILY ALERT

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German Development Minister Offers Positive Alternative to the Munich Security Conference

Feb. 19, 2018 (EIRNS)—Development Minister Gerd Müller (from Bavaria's Christian Social Union party) in the caretaker German government harshly criticized the just-concluded Munich Security Conference (MSC) for paying no attention to Africa—the continent only ranks as number 10 on an MSC list of global threats, he said—in an interview with the Feb. 17 German magazine Focus.

The European Union demonstrates a similar indifference, Müller said; its budgeting only €6 billion annually for European Union activities in Africa is just “miserable.” With 400 million Africans being born in the next 30 years, traditional and limited development policies will fail to solve any of the problems, Müller said. Furthermore, building a fence around Europe to keep refugees out will also fail, he continued, equally raking the EU for thinking it can help to send refugees back to their countries, without offering them concrete assistance in creating an existence there. What is needed are large-scale investments for jobs and enterprises in Africa. The Siemens program that is training 5,000 young Egyptians for a future job in the country’s power and electrical engineering sectors, flanked by funds provided by the German government, may serve as a model.

Müller said that he considering an alternative to the MSC, a “world peace conference” hosted by Germany later this year, to discuss these issues. He also said he had discussed with fellow Christian Social Union leader Horst Seehofer, the designated new Interior Minister, a program to bring 10,000 Iraqi refugees back to their home country to help in its reconstruction.

Müller said he would like to remain as Development Minister, but that it is not certain he will be in the new government.