H.E. Mr. Shaukat Aziz participated in the international conference in Belgrade entitled "The European Tragedy of 1914 and the Multipolar World of 2014: Lessons Learned" on 30-31 May 2014, organized by the Center for International Relations and Sustainable Development (CIRSD). He took part in a panel discussion on “The Lessons of World War I and the 21st-century East Asia.” This panel sought to draw out the lessons learned from a century ago, exploring how these could be applied to the critical Asian theatre of contemporary international relations.
Mr. Aziz gave a post-conference statement in which he said how great of an idea it had been to gather together so many important people to discuss the lessons of the outbreak of the First World War. The setting up of CIRSD is brilliant and timely initiative, he added. Peace must be achieved with strength, not with weakness, because a peace achieved with weakness is a vulnerable and not sustainable, he concluded.
His full post-conference statement can be viewed here.
Mr. Aziz was elected Prime Minister of Pakistan in 2004, following a five year tenure as the nation’s finance minister. He joined the government after a 30 year career in global finance. As Executive Vice President of Citibank, he held several senior management positions including head of institutional banking for Central Eastern Europe, the Middle East and Africa, and later for Asia-Pacific, followed by a stint as Chief Executive of its global wealth management business. Mr. Aziz is a member of the CIRSD Board of Advisors.
