Pakistani Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz in his first visit to Europe since assuming his post sought to project a new identity and role for his country as an Islamic force for moderation and stability at the crossroads of a troubled region plagued in the past by turmoil, tension and terrorism.

He sought to persuade European Union leaders in Brussels and the economic elite at the Swiss retreat that while Pakistan faced numerous challenges, it had transformed itself in recent years into a democratic expanding economy with positive prospects of overcoming decades of friction with India over Kashmir and assisting the international community in dealing with neighbours such as Afghanistan and Iran.

In Brussels, he conferred with senior EU officials, including Foreign and Security Representative Javier Solana, NATO Secretary General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer and Belgian leaders and business representatives. The contacts ranged from strategic and geopolitical to technical details of trade and economic relations.

In summing up his encounters in a speech before the Belgian Royal Institute of International Relations, January 26, Aziz said that while some of the contacts were "get-acquainted" meetings, he said he indicated that the new role he said Pakistan could play at a crossroads of South Asia, China and the Middle East had "struck a responsive chord." Among the major points in this address he noted that a suggested clash of civilisations was a doomed and wrong concept, and that terrorism could not be fought by force alone. He argued in favour of a more equitable form of globalisation

The visit and discussion appeared to usher in a new period of more constructive relations between the EU and Pakistan following years of hesitation and controversy when progress became embroiled in criticism following the military coup that brought President Pervez Musharraff to power in 1999. During that period, progress in negotiations between Islamabad and the EU on a new cooperation agreement were stymied by critics in the European Parliament accusing the leadership of anti-democratic practices and elections. At the same time the country gained economic and political benefits from its siding with the US in its conflict against terrorism and the Taliban regime in neighbouring Afghanistan despite previously strong Pakistani support to that fundamentalist Islamic movement and intense domestic opposition. Since then the country has struggled militarily against the spillover from Afghanistan and entered into a "comprehensive dialogue" with neighbouring arch-rival India over divisive issues that include the decades-old conflict over Kashmir.

Aziz dealt with the details of this relationship with the EU, including Pakistan's links to the EU system of generalised trade preferences, access for its important textile sector, or his proposal for an energy corridor from Iran and Central Asia to India. And he also conferred at the EU and NATO regarding the country's pivotal role concerning terrorism and the forthcoming parliamentary elections in Afghanistan where European military forces have assumed a prominent role. With authorities in Belgium, Pakistan's fifth largest trading partner in Europe, he also covered trade and investment, as well as Pakistan's large involvement in the UN peacekeeping force in the former Belgian Congo. With Members of the European Parliament; he emphasised that Pakistan is a functioning democracy with an elected government and free press.