I'm very grateful for the kind invitation for the very warm introduction and very generous introduction. I am not sure I deserve that. Of course, I have a good background of serving some long years in Asia, almost all my career, except for a short stint in London, represented the missions in China, Tokyo, Japan and the Republic of Korea. I would say that I was rather lucky sometime our destiny gives us some chances. And I consider myself lucky also having the chance today to be in front of you, a distinguished audience, and to try to exchange some views about how us as European Union have to deal with a very important region of the world, and with an important number of partners who may be crucially important in shaping the future world, and maintain and enhance our chances for prosperity and progress. I was just sharing initially some sorts about the way in which our department was shaped, one of the leading departments in the structure as it was thought at the beginning of this year, number one department not in orders of the numbering process, but also as one which had to inherit a very good agenda from last year. You may recall that Asia loomed large on the agenda of the EU with an important number of summits, with an important number of agreements concluded last year with an agenda which was very promising. Well, it's still so, while at the same time you may know better the flow of events in the neighborhood, European neighborhood, meaning Eastern Europe, South Eastern Europe, and of course the Middle East and Northern Africa produced new developments and the political focus switched for a while. But still the important trend of seeing Asia as an important region and partner is still there. Then from this point of view, once again, I prepared some facts, figures, our reflections on how we have to shape, develop, enhance, expand the relationship for the EU on behalf of the member states, for the interest of the member states with this region. I have to say first of all that after seven months during which I served in the service and in the Asian department, I feel very proud that these months proved at least two meaningful things. First of all that the service itself, it's a very successful international executive operation, a structure which is serving very well the external agenda of the Union and the member states and trying to concentrate the expertise we inherited from various previously existing structures like the Commission, the European Parliament, some of the colleagues are coming from the technical services of the European Parliament and the European Council and of course from member states, especially in diplomacy, crisis management and development assistance. It's an agenda which covers three meaningful areas and if you look around you'll see how every day, especially in the regions I've mentioned being now in the focus like the southern neighborhood or eastern neighborhood, these three aspects are very much interlinked and represent good contribution of the service to the way in which the European Union and member states can promote their interests. But thinking about Asia, first of all just to give you an impression of what that means for us, it means to deal with 47 countries and four territories, more than two billion people and with a landscape which combines meaningful, evolving, geo-economics and geopolitical factors. From this point of view I would say that the landscape may look patchy, impressive economic growth, new developments in social and political reforms, warring trends in terms of regional security but still not only dark spots but also bright spots in the way in which the whole region is trying to overcome previously existing, shall I call it, institutional anemia and gradually moving through a concerted joint effort to building regional structures, regional mechanisms which can deal with the emergencies, with the disputes, with the issues of common concern for the states in the region, then to a certain extent we witness a process of integration which might be meaningful and also which may invite a stronger, more substantial European contribution. Let me go through several points which may describe to you how our agenda is shaped by past, present and the future. First, I would say that for us already we have several pillars which are very important and inherited from the past decades. Europe being a main donor for the country's region, main trade partner. The latest figures prove that already Asia for the European agenda surpassed NAFTA becoming the main trading partner. A third of the Europe's total trade flows go to Asia and one third of European investments are heading towards Asian markets. At the same time, Europe stays as the most important source of development assistance programs and also programs which help promoting social, political reforms, human rights, eradicating poverty. At the same time, we are trying to have a better grasp on the latest accelerated developments which show that in the global landscape the power may shift towards East and Asia, especially certain new protagonists of international arena, may become stronger, more important partners for Europe in its role of being or enhancing its international role. From this point of view I would say the framework of Asia-Europe meeting, it's very important for Europe as a framework in which we succeeded to build up stronger relationships with ASEAN as the main organization in the region and the number of important players like China, Japan and Republic of Korea. We have a good strategy which we inherited as our department from the Commission. It was always the idea that the partnerships with the countries in the region should be built on a sort of a double approach, encompassing political areas and economic and trade areas. Then we inherited the practice of negotiating and concluding so-called political agreements with the name of partnership and cooperation agreements, very comprehensive agreements with a lot of provisions sometime including political ones, human rights, good governance and trade or economic related provisions and that coupled with free trade agreements. This two-folded approach, it was always shaping a good platform for the EU relations with a country in the region and also generating a good platform, a good framework for the individual EU member states in developing their particular specific relationships with the countries in Asia. From this point of view I can report to you that this process which started of course during the Commission years by the Commission Specialized Services and we inherited and we are continuing that together with the Commission. We succeeded already to have five partnership and cooperation agreements with Asian countries, completed in 2009-10 with Indonesia, Korea, Republic of Korea, Mongolia, Philippines and Vietnam, far partnership and cooperation agreements still underway under negotiations with China, which you may well imagine that the extension, the amplitude of such a partnership and cooperation agreement with China, which is sort of an upgrading and updating of the 1985 agreement with China. It's not a very easy process and also negotiations ongoing with some other South East Asian countries as I mentioned Thailand, Singapore, Malaysia and two more which we expect to launch soon with Brunei and Australia. I said about coupling that with trade agreements so-called free trade agreements which for a while have been successful as being concluded with excellent results. The biggest FDA for the EU ever already concluded last year with Republic of Korea and since July 1st already started implementation and the previous let's say first two months already showing splendid results more than 30% increase in bilateral trade exports and imports for each side and a next one looming large the foreign the free trade agreement with India which for a while proofs to be given the ambitions let's say the scope we envisaged for such a trade agreement being not very easy to negotiate but still the efforts being done at all the levels from the highest political level which is supporting and providing the political backup for that till the technical services of the Commission. The negotiations ongoing and also with other countries which are negotiations registering good progress like with Singapore and Malaysia and having some other members in the ASEAN in Southeast Asia Southeast Asian region like Vietnam Japan in in the Northeast Asia willing to negotiate such agreements. I was mentioning the experience of the EU in development assistance and there are two points to make in that respect while remaining the biggest donor in the region and Asia of course the most important recipient I would say that we by now are trying to do a sort of adjustments in the planning process for the future cycle taking into account once again the economic dynamism of the region the good victories they scored in many ways GDP gross per capita gross trade flows increasing at a more accelerated speed and at the same time given the level of local resources from this point of view of course there are considerations related to the new levels of income at the national level in these countries then maybe the amount of development assistance programmed for the future cycles would not be as much as in the past and new considerations of course are just setting in and we'll do a bit thinking about the way in which China India maybe Indonesia will benefit in the future in amount or in nature and we will reconsider the way in which we'll proceed with this assistance but we have to admit to recognize that still many countries including those now mentioned as belonging to the mid-level income categories they still unfortunately have problems I've mentioned China India for example still on certain parts of their territories still have pockets of very serious poverty challenging their national efforts and from this point of your course EU will be always ready to provide a certain amount of assistance assistance in expertise in the way in which to to fight against poverty and underdevelopment and I will have to to recall that just for the whole Asia for the period going from 2007 to 2013 we are marked a total amount of grants from over five billion euros from the EU's development corporation instrument the same because I haven't I haven't mentioned yet besides Asia we are covering also the Pacific which of course is close to Asia I won't go into discussions on how would be properly defined the whole Asian continent but we are covering from the borders of Mongolia China not this Asia to the borders of Iran Iran not being included Central Asia is not included in in our geographical area but then Pacific first time it was included in in in the area we are responsible for and the 15 countries in the Pacific are also recipients of an important amount of European effort in development assistance including for the fact that they are challenged by the climate change and many of them are very much threatened by the level of rising water then let me say after this general very broad introduction you may be interested in certain details about our thinking and strategies in dealing with a certain number of important partners in the region I have mentioned that we have four strategic partners and as you may know since September last year there is a good debate going on by the end of the end December also a good number of papers were dedicated in the European Council to the thinking about what the concept of the strategic partners should be actually defined and implemented I would say this this process of reflection which invites of course contribution from the member states from the parliament as a political guidance it's still going on besides the ones which were discussed last year the United States Russia China that many other important strategic partners with new developments in their national and international situation and that invites a more focused approach a new way of defining priorities objectives way of implementing and promoting stronger expanded relationship with these so-called strategic partners the case of India Brazil South Africa then from this point of view I will start with China which looms large on our agenda with Asia last year as you may know we had a summit in the fall in Brussels which was sort of a transitional summit because it came immediately after as the first summit with China after the adoption of the Lisbon Treaty then the new institutions European institutions were not exactly all of them already in place and from this point of view let me say we did to a certain extent better after the beginning of this year while we started to look into this strategic partnership we have with China stated in 2003 and we tried to use as much as we could in this very short lapse of time the new instruments created by Lisbon Treaty and you may recall in mid-May we had the first visit abroad of the president of European Council in his capacity President Baron Puy went to China in mid-May for a very successful state visit it was one which has shown that in his position in his role as a political authority representing the EU he may contribute very well in a dialogue or at the substance and the extension of the political dialogue with a meaningful strategic partner then later on we had also the second round of strategic dialogue with another institution if you want created by Lisbon and it was the second round of strategic dialogue done by Lady Ashton as high representative and Vice President of the Commission with State Councilor typing war a high level of dialogue too especially meaningful because it focused on a good range of global and international issues and without adventuring myself in trying to elaborate more on how we see the the strategic partnership concept in and if you want in an immediate understanding which may guide our actual work in implementing that would be beside the bilateral relationship to go international to go beyond bilateral at regional and global level and to go into long term I would say that to a certain extent we are doing that since once again since the beginning of the service in the relations with with China and let me say to the same extent the Chinese are willing to join our efforts in exploring such directions for actually implementing what we generously called strategic partnership I would say first because I've mentioned the the going beyond bilateral that visibly this year the quality of engagement with China in the multilateral setting improved and well we may have some specific examples as China voting together with those who supported the new role of the EU at the United Nations as observer but of course there are still moments in which following its national interests China and some other strategic partners of the EU may have different position as it's happened recently on the resolution in the circuit council on Syria at the same time I have to say the bright spots many others are there noticed in the process of achieving a greater political coordination on other as I said global and international issues like on climate change counter piracy asian security coordination on on the issues which are on the agenda of the G20 and so on I have to recall also the way in which I guess very much your attention was was also focusing on the way in which China has a certain role against the background of the European sovereign debt crisis though still the exposure is small the amount of euro bonds bought by China it's it's not very much but still in many occasions true political statement public statements political statements its general attitude including in the media the Chinese expressed confidence and support in the efforts done to manage the the euro crisis and same extent they went ahead in supporting individual member states from this point of view I would say that it's good to see such a major global economic player expressing faith into the resilience of the eurozone at the same time of course I have to recall the fact that the economic the financial economic crisis since 2008 as you may have noticed push China upwards and its economic performance suddenly positioned China as I was saying as a leading economic player in the world it became the second big economy surpassing Japan and at the same time the people started to notice how much the economic potential not only because of the natural resources labor resources the financial resources the amount of foreign currency reserves existing in China but also the market still are now challenges and opportunities from this point of view I would say that our service and myself we are increasingly aware of the expertise knowledge and good grasp on the realities in asia and general in in in China especially existing at the level of the european business community since almost three decades already the european companies with a fantastic courage and good entrepreneurial adventure into the chinese market they were more or less players contributors and partners into the process of opening and reforming the chinese society and economy invested a lot in terms of bringing in technology transferring technology bringing in advanced and efficient more efficient management training chinese experts and managers being a part of the whole game through which effort and construction through which China became an important economic player I'm not sure we all maybe including the chinese friends paid enough tribute to the contribution of the european companies tens of thousands of european companies who kept being very present active and courageous exploring and courageously exploring the european market the chinese market and being a part of this advance and progress of the chinese economy from this point of view once again I would say the new developments are very much inviting us to join hands with the leaders of the european community here in europe or those presence in asia and general or those present on the chinese markets to look into the crystal ball and devise better more efficient strategies in coupling the european and chinese economy in special or with asian economies in general because the level of interdependence now in economic field as you may say also is unprecedented and to the same extent invites to a certain adjustment upgrading of our business and political strategies and policies from this point of view I would say EU developed along the years a good number of sectorial mechanisms for cooperation dialogue with China over 50 the problem now is that we have enough you may say or too many also mechanisms and sometimes we disperse important things in smaller way of conducting certain dialogue exchanges and it would be much better to be more selective and focused I don't know it's open to discussion but what we need for sure it's very much to look into priorities of the EU now against the current context to the priorities of chinese and to try to devise better strategies of cooperation and it happened already if you want since the spring as you may know during the debates of the national people congress the chinese parliament in march by the end of march actually it was adopted the new five-year plan sort of a guidelines macroeconomic guidelines for the next five years starting for 2011 and I would say that to a greater extent that in the past we felt and we invited a good number of think tanks and I would be happy if you're distinguished the think tank we may be also involved in such an open reflection how the european 2020 strategy and the five the chinese five years guidelines may well offer a potential because there are a lot of commonalities regarding the sustained development green economy yeah urbanization social development many fields which may be may represent the potential a new areas for updating upgrading refreshing our our cooperation in many fields because of that once again I admit and praise the work done for having a good number of sectorial dialogues but I would very much invite them to live up to the current requirements of exploring new areas more in a more efficient in a better way to answer to the european expectations and I would say our service the european external service in our department is adding very much in this respect not only working for implementing the a number of priorities a number of priorities which were explicitly stated for the service contributing to the crisis management developing relations with strategic partners I mentioned China and building the department of course that that might be the first priority and promoting human rights but I would add another one I would beg to to creatively with your kind acceptance add another one against the background the difficult one which is challenging one challenging all of us after the crisis meaning generate additional resources in economy and trade for contributing to the relaunch of the economic growth in in Europe and that can be done in the relations with China and in general with Asia of course I I've mentioned shortly our contribution to to the priorities related to the promoting the basic values like human rights of course Chinese they face a lot of challenges after three decades of sustained growth which tremendously changed the whole landscape social and political landscape maybe not to the extent which was expected in some other parts of the world but which very much contributed first to integrating China into international community contributing to a certain amount of a certain degree of liberalization of that society to a certain extent of embracing adopting localizing international and european values but the process it's not finished besides as many events proved if you want that you can choose any point in time but I would be just given my experience on the grounds as Romanian ambassador there to say since 2008 maybe because since 2008 the level of international exposure of China because of the domestic and international events or events with an international dimension as it happened to be Beijing Olympic Games last year's Shanghai World Expo China increasingly had to go international and to welcome a greater extent yeah of international if you want participation into Chinese affairs then from this point of view I would say we are challenging sometime China inviting her to be more courageous daringly promote a greater extent of opening and reforms and offering in that respect expertise our experience in many ways in the way in which Europe European Union member states went through transition changes and to the same extent trying to understand the specific situation of China challenged by the new stage of its own development and I would say from disrespect what I've mentioned the five years macroeconomic plan it's offering good openings for us to get more involved in this process of societal transformation in the process of reshaping the default economic growth pattern of China as you may know from the growth driven by exports to the growth driven by consumption and that would of course generate a lot of opportunities for the European exports for the European industrial corporation and other kind of companies services for example on the Europe on the Chinese markets with the human rights I have to say that uh China had once again a lot of events which happened and had very much required a proper handling in terms of domestic policies which very much contributed to a certain thinking on how the Chinese political reform should proceed of course I already abuse of your patience speaking so much about China but once again that's a process in which I see chances for us to be more present and I will have to recall with pleasure that I mentioned the instruments created by Treaty of Lisbon being useful in promoting our relationship with strategic partner in various way and I have to say from this point of view that President Van Rompuy Lady Ashton has hired a representative in various occasions as I said at the highest political level possible had good talks with Chinese on various issues which included the way in which we see the situation on human rights in China and the way ahead in promoting bilateral dialogue cooperation various individual programs of assistance for training lawyer judges human rights militants in China and helping China to move ahead in a way which is compatible and may be seen acceptable from our point of view then from this point of view it's a very complex relationship I would say and that's something which we do especially because we want to see China more integrated in international society and sharing responsibility as an emerging regional and global power I will try to go ahead with I will shorten that part about China but going to India another strategic partner of the EU a title given in 2005 but it's not only honorary it's a justified very legitimate recognition of its new status in the regional and international level it's rising capacity to contribute in many ways to the resolution of the global challenges and I would say that once again I would kindly invite a stronger a more feasible additional effort from the European business community to pay attention to market with 1.2 billion consumers and which has many sectors in which the European technology and management may well expand the potential and the possibilities for the European businesses to make profits and create good benefits also for the Indian friends I would say that the partnership is solid underpinned by this economic dimension I have mentioned the negotiation on the free trade agreement with India but I would say that as in the case with China we have a very elaborate architecture of various sectoral mechanisms of the dialogue dialogue and incorporation which again are compressing for example human rights it's the only country with which India has such a dialogue with an international partner and many other sectors we are trying to expand we are trying to expand because as I mentioned we really believe India has a good contribution to make in the regional and international security and in other issues of global concern including climate change energy security and so on from this point of view I have to add also science and technology and so on I would go next to Japan which it's of course a like-minded country last year we had a very good summit but again in mid-May actually till now it's the only summit we had this year given what I've mentioned the flow of the events which to a certain extent shadowed our Asian priorities then the only summit my department organized for this year it was with Japan in mid-May by the end of May sorry and very much was one which was meant to contribute to the comprehensive upgrading of the relationship and the leaders when they've met the former japanese prime minister the president of the european council and the commission decided to launch a two-folded approach a scoping exercise we say to gauge the level of our ambitions in aiming at having a wider more comprehensive and stronger framework in in the bilateral engagement one full being the political framework the political which would include wider areas in terms of cooperation at regional level and we have such corporations I will I will give you some examples about the excellent cooperation we have in Middle East or in Afghanistan and we would like to have more maybe in the pacific ocean I mentioned those countries being recipient of important amount of developmental systems and expertise and of course on the economic side where in a very natural way the the european business community is is waiting for us to see what would be the effect the benefits the challenges of having free trade agreement concluded with with Japan I've mentioned the the regional dimension of our cooperation and as I was saying in the Horn of Africa and Afghanistan in North Africa and Middle East we would like to expand in civilian EU crisis management missions we worked excellently in the post Fukushima context after the earthquake and we are trying we already proposed to Japan is France to expand cooperation on nuclear safety and security and energy efficiency disaster preparedness and management some other meaningful partners in religion are Australia and New Zealand with Australia again to the same extent like minded country are very dynamic relations together with New Zealand represent two stable and very close partners in the region and we feel that they can punch above their weight and advocate more visibly our shared values and interest with regional partners in Asia and the Pacific we are prepared to negotiate a framework agreement between EU and Australia trying to project a long-term partnership and trying to foresee some joint action in various areas like tackling global challenges climate change counterterrorism republic of Korea another another strategic partner we had last year an excellent summit the conclusion of the free take the climate as I was saying it the biggest for a while with the EU and we are now in the process of exploring with Republic of Korea the way in which we can open some new areas of cooperation and we are waiting for next spring the moment in which in sometime in March they will be hosts of the nuclear energy summit a good opportunity again maybe to work not only with Korea which has good expertise in the nuclear energy field but also with others in the region including China Japan and some others North Korea being in the region if you'll allow I will just say a few words given the extent of the use security and economic interest in peace and stability of that region Asia and China and the Pacific Korean Peninsula also is given a certain attention we are trying to to keep visible our positive role in supporting the peace process in the region we are not part of the six party talks as you may know but we believe this is an important mechanism and we are praising the role of USA Japan Republic of Korea China in trying to keep this process going with with North Korea in parallel we are trying to have bilaterally a policy of critical engagement with North Korea and we are always sending clear messages of concern regarding the domestic situation especially the human rights situation our concern about what happened in the past certain provocations towards the south but at the same time we provide certain very targeted assistance because we are aware of certain domestic problems they they have we try to to help in food health sanitations over the past 15 years and as you may know lately given certain exchange of views and certain documentation we've got from the world food program we decided to provide on an emergency basis a 10 million euros food assistance for certain vulnerable segments of the population Afghanistan I was mentioning the the crisis management part of our story which represents an important area an important field in which EU it's gradually developing strong capabilities and expertise Afghanistan as you may know you may have followed the debates in mutual light we had foreign affairs council the ministers for foreign affairs of the member states adopting conclusions on our policies in Afghanistan and I would say that was a very strong and serious political commitment which answered very much the expectations of the afghan people in in early august immediately after the the council I went to to Kabul with Polish Foreign Minister Shikorski and in the talks with President Karzai was visible the level of concern and worries they had that in certain point in time the international community will disengage and leave them alone then from this point of view EU had a point to prove and you may know we have certain operations like in assisting the training of the civilian police over there which shown that we are very much contributed to the institutional capacity building and to those efforts aiming at keeping the stability public order and promoting civilian reforms actually since 2002 already the EU's programs in in Afghanistan helped in various institutions building capacity building at the central and local level electoral reform justice and in many other economic sectors to develop the private sector to develop energy agriculture and so on of course we are very much aware that domestic challenges are still very big and of course if you'll if you want I can elaborate on that Pakistan we since last year I would say we are following very close paying good attention to what's going on over there we know that Pakistan it's a country which has a crucial role to play against the international terrorist and for the peace and stability of the region in the immediate neighborhood of Afghanistan we continue to reinforce our engagement with Pakistan last year at the summit it was decided to offer a five years engagement plan very comprehensive one let me say a good number of pages representing various offers in terms of programs a good selection of sectors aiming at supporting the civilian government supporting the institutional capacity building and the administration and helping the economic development and social development of Pakistan in these days just last week we had very good talks with Pakistani officials from the ministry of health affairs on how to shape how to define the whole package of this five years engagement plan which shows that the EU is not only concerned about the immediate situation by trying but a midterm commitment to offer programs in helping the civilian authorities to do their best in promoting good governance social and political reforms and relaunch the economic development and being better equipped to deal with the challenges in the domestic and regional security uh southeast asia i've mentioned asian southeast asia association that's being a very important one it's a population of over six million people young and with rising living standards it's the fifth largest trading partner of the EU with very dynamic economies very successful certain very successful models of transition of democratic transition like indonesia philippines as an organization we feel that asian has a central role to play in what i've mentioned overcoming the institutional organizational anemia of the whole region and playing a role in shaping up a bigger stronger meaningful architecture an institutional architecture at the regional level then from this point of view i would say that lately in the recent years visibly asian got some inspiration for the european experience and it's going along with that in its own way the relations with the EU developed significantly in the last two years we we had with 10 individual members a good number of bilateral agreements and sectoral cooperation and with asian as a group i will just point out the successful efficient developments through three avenues first economy of course the economy i would say and the trade exchanges shown as i pointed out sort of an unprecedented level of interdependence critically important for both EU and asian in this very moment in the aftermath of the financial and economic crisis secondly i have mentioned in the the integration process the fact that by 2015 asian wants to create an economic community that should be seen as an opportunity for the european business it's a level playing field being created and lucrative market in the future being shaped for the european technology goods services fda negotiations because of these properties prospects are moving ahead and i've mentioned good prospects and progress with singapore malaysia exploratory exercise of seeing what can do what's the level of the ambitions with vietnam and thailand i've mentioned development assistance we are giving we already started and we we marked for the cycle financial cycle from 2007 to 2013 already an important amount 1.3 billion euros which are dedicated to as as grants for for many countries one of the biggest recipient being vietnam i would say that that process of integration in asian it's it's advancing very well but we are trying to help them to have institutional mechanisms which are working for that the secretariat of asian for example it's is deserving more attention we are trying to contribute in terms of staff training capacity building with that and have certain programs for for them we are also helping them with having an original human rights body we have a permanent dialogue with those mechanisms in charge of monitoring and following their situation in that respect just to to finalize i would say that the original landscape as i put it looks patchy with the economic dynamics with certain tensions in terms of territorial disputes and security developments but what is important for us i would say at this kind of cross-cutting issues one the positive trend towards democratic consolidation yeah in the region you you may have seen the results of the recent elections in indonesia philippines malaysia uh others are compelling us on an i would say emergency basis to try to address the problems of corruption still existing there and affecting those administrations and countries like in cambodia and vietnam we are monitoring closely the latest recent developments in in thailand there is a growing hope in Burma Myanmar that the new government as we are following since since april is doing a lot of things and very much looks like genuinely taking a path for reform and engagement with various political factors from this point of view we gave some encouraging signals we initiated a political dialogue we had already a mission headed by the advisor of lady ashton robert cooper and a commissioner madame georgieba visiting and we will continue for a while with the humanitarian assistance but we will watch the developments in terms of political reform release of the political prisoners the extended dialogue with certain political opponents and from this point of view i would say we have to be ready if needed to make new gesture in encouraging the government to stay on this course they engage it already in promoting some changes i've mentioned security challenges in the region terrorist risk of proliferation of world weapons of mass destruction transnational crime rising energy demands and competitions as you may have seen down to the southern part of the the region over natural resources maritime piracy natural disasters the things which happened in japan challenged very much the preparedness and the mix existing mechanism then from this point of view i would say the european expertise and involvement it might be very much appreciated and invited by these developments i've mentioned pacific being part of of our agenda but still i i hope i did not abuse very much of your patients then if there are any questions on on the pacific chapter of our activity i would be happy to to elaborate on that once again uh asia and the cooperation with our department are very high on on the agenda at the level of the president of the european council the european commission and the high representative katrin ashton from this point of view i have to say that personally i benefited of the direct support political guidance and personal involvement very much necessary since as you may know the oriental friends the friends in asia and in pacific they like very much to to see a certain level of political representation and dialogue then from this point of view i assure you this this fall may be also a very uh hot one we are preparing the summit with china we are preparing certain visits in the region once again very grateful for for your attention i hope i did not abuse of your patience and i'm i'm ready to answer to your questions thank you thank you


If you haven't heard by now, you need to hear. So what is glyphosate? Well, glyphosate is the active ingredient in Roundup, made by Monsanto, now owned by Bayer.  And as you know the story, Monsanto genetically engineered soybeans and then corn and then oats and various other products to be resistant to the killing action of glyphosate. But you could spray it on the weeds in the field and the weeds would die. Of course, now plants are pretty smart and weeds have become resistant to the action of glyphosate. So we now have superweeds that actually have to have more glyphosate poured on them. So glyphosate works by interfering with the plants, simplistically energy producing pathway, which is called the chikamate pathway. Now what you don't know probably is that glyphosate was patented as an antibiotic. Yes, because bacteria use the chikamate pathway to reproduce as well. Now the good news, at least according to the nice folks at Monsanto, when they talked to the FDA, was that humans don't use the chikamate pathway. And so glyphosate was perfectly safe for humans to ingest. Glyphosate now is known to independently cause leaky gut without any other reason. We now know that glyphosate preferentially kills friendly bacteria, leaving bad bacteria alive. In fact, what's really scary is that glyphosate kills off the tryptophan pathway bacteria that take tryptophan, turn it into serotonin, the feel good hormone. So one of the things that's been implicated in our epidemic of anxiety and depression is the fact that glyphosate, which has now been around for 50 years, is destroying the very bacteria that make feel good hormones. Now that's not all. In one paper that I show in my book, glyphosate interferes with mitochondrial function. Now why would that be? Because quite frankly, mitochondria are ancient engulfed bacteria. So it's actually no surprise that glyphosate would interfere with mitochondrial function. And just remember, mitochondria are what makes energy for us, ATP. Just how bad is glyphosate? Well, the IARC working group classified glyphosate as probably carcinogenic to humans. The World Health Organization classifies it as carcinogenic to humans. In 2019, researchers at the University of Washington that concluded that glyphosate use increases the risk of non-Hodgkin's lymphoma by 41%. And as you probably have heard in the news, there have now been a number of successful multi-million, even billion dollar lawsuits filed and adjudicated against Monsanto and Bayer for cancer that roundup caused. So juries have now decided that it's true that there is a direct cancer link. So everybody used to think that roundup was only used on GMO crops and that if it said non-GMO on the front, you were safe. Well, not so fast. It turns out that modern agriculture wants to have a field ready to harvest when their multi-million dollar harvesting machines are available at that field. And they can't depend on weather to ripen the crops or to have the crop ready. So what they do commercially is they spray the field with roundup a couple of weeks before they plan to harvest. The entire plant dies. Again, these are non-GMO plants. These are regular plants and they desiccate. They dry up. It's a whole lot easier to harvest dead plants than living plants. You lose all the water. So now almost all of our conventional grain products, wheat, corn, soybeans, just to name a few, oats, are sprayed with roundup for the purpose of drying the crop and making it easier to harvest.   So most of our crops now, conventionally, are sprayed with glyphosate. So just because it says non-GMO means absolutely nothing about the presence of glyphosate. Oh, and by the way, because the FDA has declared that glyphosate is safe, you don't have to put it on the label that you used it because what the heck? It doesn't matter. Right now, it's sprayed on 70% of all of our agricultural crops. 90% of our corn and 90% of our soy is sprayed with glyphosate. Now, is it so prevalent that it's a problem? Well, more than 80% of Americans in one study looking at urine samples, including 87% of children had large amounts of glyphosate in their urine, which means that we are a wash in glyphosate, but it gets worse.  So now we take this glyphosate sprayed corn, this glyphosate sprayed soybeans, this glyphosate oats wheat, and we feed it to our animals. Now, our animals then have glyphosate in their tissues. So when we eat our conventionally raised animals, our chicken, our pork, our beef, that are fed these grain products to fatten them up, they've got glyphosate in them as well. And insult injury, put your hamburger on a bun that was made out of glyphosate sprayed wheat, and I guarantee you it was, you've got a double glyphosate load. But wait, there's more. You can't be safe with a plant-based burger, like the new exciting, I won't mention their names, but these are made with soy, and they have detectable levels of glyphosate in them. So do you want a little glyphosate with your plant-based burger? Uh-uh. All right, so where do we really want to be aware of glyphosate? So number one is oatmeal and oats. Yes, even organic, even Bob Redmill have glyphosate in their oats. A recent study of 35 oat products in the United States found glyphosate, including some very dangerous levels in every one of the oat products tested, including many of our kid's cereals, including granola and granola bars. And I did say yes, even organic. Here's the problem. Glyphosate is usually sprayed from machines or even from helicopters or planes. You may have an organic field of oats, but your neighbor on one side or all sides doesn't grow organically. He sprays his crops and the glyphosate drifts over to your crop. In fact, that's what happens to our organic oats. It's so prevalent in the use of oats that just because it's organic and it wasn't used on that field doesn't mean it didn't drift in from the other field. And that's why we find it in all of these products. Now, it's present in all grains. It's present because it's been sprayed on almost all grains. Interestingly, a great number of California wines have glyphosate in them. Why? Because it's used as a weed killer between the vines to top down weeds. And of course, that spray gets up on the grapes. And again, they're not washed off before they're made into wine. Is there any way to stop this?  There's been a huge movement in Europe to ban glyphosate, to have organic or even beyond organic biodynamic vineyards. And you're much safer looking for organic on the label or biodynamic on the label or when in doubt. And I'm a Californian, I praise California wines every now and then. Look for something from France or Italy. And in general, you'll find a lot more organic labels or biodynamic labels. Stay away from breakfast foods. Cheerios, granola bars. Unfortunately, believe it or not, cherries, 60% of the crops are sprayed with glyphosate. It's in apple and cherry juices. It's also been found in fresh corn. It's been found in asparagus, figs, grapefruit, hazelnuts, olives, oranges, peaches. Why? Because the weeds around these crops are controlled with glyphosate, round them. And it's getting into all of our produce. It's everywhere. Well, you look at that, listen, you go, well, jeez, there is absolutely nothing safe to eat. Maybe so, but at the very least, when you get your produce at home, wash it. Wash it in the sink. Does vinegar help? Maybe, maybe not. I don't know of a study that says vinegar removes glyphosate, but it's certainly not gonna remove the glyphosate from your Cheerios. So with your fruit, with your vegetables, even your lettuces, make sure you rinse them. With lettuces, get yourself a salad spinner. I have two salad spinners, and they're great fun to work out your frustrations. Eat organic or grass-fed or pastured whenever possible.  Get to know your farmers. Ask them what they do with their crops. Ask them how they feed their animals. I remember one time visiting a farmer's market in Phoenix, where I was lecturing a few years ago, and there was a pastured poultry.  And they looked at me and said, we don't give them anything. They work for us. They go out in the fields and eat bugs. And I said, oh, perfect answer. Thanks so much. All right, glyphosate is here. It's in us. Are there any things you can do? Well, first of all, don't use it. First of all, don't use it in your yard. Don't use it on your sidewalks. Don't use it on the cracks. Don't let it near your kids. We have many parents who have actually organized with school boards to prevent spraying glyphosate on school grounds. It's something you can do to protect your kids. But if you then send them to school with a granola oat bar and feed them a healthy bowl of oatmeal, you're defeating the purpose. Try to buy organic. Believe it or not, Walmart is now the biggest producer seller of organic food in the United States. And probably Costco is right behind. These are coming. There are numerous organic and biodefinite wineries in the United States now. Lastly, are there any other things you can do? Well, you'll see on the internet, and I've talked about this before, there are a couple of compounds. One's called humic acid and one's called folvic minerals that some studies suggest protect the lining of the gut from glyphosate. And studies are interesting. I certainly believe that these studies may be useful. Here's a helpful hint. Glyphosate is an isomer of the amino acid glycine. And what happens is that glyphosate fits into glycine spots in DNA. And one of the big fears and one of the big cancer fears of glyphosate is that because it changes DNA by substituting for glycine, that might be the reason it causes cancer or is associated with cancer. What can you do? You can over-consume glycine. Now, that's really easy to do. Glycine is available as a powder. It has a slight sweet taste. Or you can take it as capsules. And as a matter of fact, I take 3 grams of glycine every day as part of my regimen. By the way, glycine is one of the important amino acids that makes up collagen. So rather than taking your collagen powder, just get some glycine in your diet and prevent glyphosate from substituting for glycine. Thanks so much for watching. But don't go anywhere. This next one is sure to surprise you. A daily walk can help kickstart energy production, improve metabolism, slash the risk of diabetes, and help boost mental clarity.


If you have the chance to go and show someone what you can do without being in your face showing them what you can do, take advantage of any opportunity like that and I'll revert back to the time when I did that sheet of drafting. So if you've got an opportunity, I know one of my students at Mineral Tech one time, the department that we're looking for a young fella to help in the core lab in Pasadena. So it was a bit physical, moving boxes of coal on this kind of thing, but they needed a student for the summer and so the guy at the department had phoned myself the instructor at Mineral Tech said who do you recommend so I gave him a number of names and one of those students happened to be in St. John's for the spring break and he went into the department and looked up the guy that was looking for the student and he told him who he was and he said you know I'm interested in the job for the summer I just thought I'd come in and you know make contact and you know meet you and put a name to the face of the man and this kind of thing and anyway he got the job and the guy from the department told me after he said yeah I looked at all the resumes somewhere really really impressive but he said the guy that stood out he said was the guy that took the initiative to come in and see me and make that you know face-to-face contact and so I really thought that was pretty cool and so I appreciated it and so I gave him the job.


So, back to that very practical question, what does it mean to meditate on the humanity of Jesus? Are we just talking about his passion primarily, his suffering, like what we're doing here in Lent? Many of us are spending a lot of time thinking about all of what he went through, what led up to his betrayal in the garden, and then his trial, and then all of the abuse, and then ultimately the crucifixion. Is that what we're talking about? We talk about meditating on the humanity of Jesus? This has a special place, especially this time of year. There are other dimensions. You can look at the whole humanity of Jesus from the incarnation to his glorification at the right hand of the Father. This is what St. Paul does in the letter of the Philippians, though he was in the form of God. Jesus didn't deem equality with God something to be grasped at, but rather emptied himself. That self-empty takes him all the way back to the throne of the Father so that at Jesus' name every knee must bow and every tongue confess that he's the Lord. Do you see the pathway that opens up? The passion begins when the word becomes flesh, and it's fully manifest in his last wordless cry on the cross, and the silence after he's breathed his last. The Father has spoken to us everything we need to know for our salvation. We need to listen to the silence of God who suffered death for us. If we receive that mystery, ponder the mystery of Jesus' humanity, we also see the mystery of the Father's love, a love not vanquished by death, so powerful that they can raise up humanity. Our contemplation of Jesus' humanity also takes us into the resurrection. When we contemplate even the resurrection, it's the resurrection of the crucified Christ, so it's not resurrection or the cross. The crucified Christ has come to us and appeared to us, and we see his wounds, and we can ponder those wounds and what they meant for us, wounds that already are waiting to be unveiled to us in the first moment he's in the womb of his mother. The wounds reveal what's in the heart of Jesus, and so to go back to your thing, the passion and death of Jesus has a singular place, the mystics and the church say that there is a singular kind of grace that comes through meditating on the passion of the Lord, not because there's something less than the whole reality of it, but because that passion leads to the resurrection, because it comes from the annunciation, in the passion and the shedding of the blood, what is inside Jesus is unveiled to us, what is inside his humanity is made manifest to us, so now we can see what's in his heart, it's a heart that gives itself to the end and will hold nothing back for us, and this is what we receive when we consume the Holy Eucharist, this unveiling of the love of the Father that triumphs over death, but is unveiled and Jesus is suffering, and so it's going to be unveiled, as we enter into that mystery, it's going to be unveiled in our own suffering too.


My best tip for incoming students is to talk to the alumni because they knew a lot of information that is not available online. Allocate more time in your studies and you can also read ahead before even going to Australia. Never afraid to ask and never afraid to make mistakes. People will help you. Your friends will help you. Your university will help you. You're not going to feel isolated. If you don't understand something, ask them and believe me they will answer and assist you. You never delay things. Always keep yourself on top of every assignment. Prepare early before you come to class. It will be really helpful because you are required to read all the complimentary readings before you go to class so that you can be more prepared. I am independent. I never be afraid to ask anyone if I need something or I want to know something. It's going to be daunting at times, having lots of assignments, lots of readings but there are many student services that are available and you just have to look for them and be prepared.