The Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques, King Abdullah bin Abdulaziz has given a wide-ranging interview to the German newspaper "Frankfurter Allgemeine" dealing with Saudi-German relations, the international situation in the globalization era, the Middle East peace conference, the Saudi Arabia's efforts at the regional and international levels, international issues led by the situation in the Middle East region and Saudi Arabia's role at various levels. Following is the text of the interview of the Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques: Question: Beginning your journey to Germany, how do you view Germany and what do you expect from Germany politically and economically? Does the history of Germany constitute a burden on our (Germany's) image in the world? Answer: Germany is a country of an ancient history and human civilization and a minaret of intellect. Its people have the right to be proud of it. It is illogical to diminish the image of Germany and its history or to blame its people for the mistake of a dark era it had lived and the German people were its first victim as the whole world suffered form the crimes of that era. I think Germany managed to overcome this historical era to come back as a great country with its political and economic status and contribute with great efforts to the support of international security and peace and human development. This is what we have felt through its membership and recent chairmanship of the European Union. During this period, there have been constant coordination and consultation at the level of efforts to solve the crises in our region and to bolster economic and cultural cooperation between our two countries. Question: In a world where the power influence is currently shifting from the Western Europe to Asia and it is expected that the 21st century will be the century of China, can it also be the century of Arabs? Answer: I think that the globalization era we are currently living managed to cancel all political, economic and cultural borders among all countries of the world and as an international community, we have become to live in a world whose concepts transcend geographical borders and there is inter-action among its parts despite distances and various cultures. This requires from us to boost joint cooperation to achieve human development. With their civilization reservoir, deep-rooted culture and human and material capabilities, Arabs are no doubt qualified to tangibly, essentially and importantly contribute to and participate in the world of the 21st century. --MORE
