EU's Patten calls for international cooperation at "unprecedented level'' to combat terrorism

Article by Associated Press writer PAUL AMES based on an interview with Chris Patten

13 September 2001

The European Union's foreign policy Commissioner urged Pakistan, China, Russia and moderate Arab nations on Thursday to join Europe and the United States in a global alliance against the terrorism following the attacks on New York and Washington.

"This is a long term project that will involve international cooperation on an unprecedented level," EU External Affairs Commissioner Chris Patten told the Associated Press. "We've talking about a global problem and we need a global solution."

Patten is scheduled to hold talks in Washington next week with Secretary of State Colin Powell to discuss how Europe can help America.  Aside from possible military cooperation through NATO, Patten mentioned action to tackle the international financing of terrorism and increased intelligence-sharing as examples of how Europe and America could boost cooperation.

Patten, a former British government minister and Hong Kong governor, said trans-Atlantic squabbles over trade or the environment had been pushed aside as Europe stood alongside the United States after the tragedy.

"Sometimes it takes a calamity to make people realize they are all one family," he said. "We're all Americans today."

Patten is scheduled to join other EU leaders Friday in a ceremony to mourn the victims as 43 European nations join in a day of remembrance that will include three-minutes of silence which governments hoped would be observed by 800 million European citizens from Russia to Ireland.

He said a global campaign to root out terrorism could mean the victims of Tuesday's attack did not die in vain. "Did the people who were murdered this week die as the first terrible bloodletting of a new century as grim as the last, or will we be able to make sure the sacrifice they made leads to something better?" he asked.

Patten said the EU would continue its diplomatic efforts to relaunch peace talks in the Middle East and denounced "simplistic solutions" that sought to identify all Arabs or Muslims with the attackers.

"It would be terribly unfair to behave in the wake of this disaster as if the whole of Islam was to blame. It is not," he stressed.

"We should never see this as a struggle between different civilizations. It's a struggle between decency and evil."