“This being so afraid about competitiveness, I have never understood. Even as a Prime Minister, unless you have products or services to sell to others outside your own country, then you better look for other things that you can do better.”

Question: What is the incentive for U.S. and Europe to help China work towards sustainable development? 

Gro Harlem Brundtland: I think there is already a lot of collaboration going on between European countries and China and between U.S. and China. And this is necessary from so many different perspectives. China is part of the WTO, it is the major economy, gradually will be. And in the sustainable and climate area, it is essential for the global future. So, no doubt there has to be collaboration. And China is going to develop. They have ambitions and we have to realize that those ambitions are not different from the ambitions that dominated in our own countries when our countries were being developed and new technologies were being put into function. So, the best thing we can do is be collaborative and see to it that the patterns that are being used are inspired by future looking technologies, and it will benefit all of us. 

You know, this being so afraid about competitiveness, I have never understood. Even as a Prime Minister, I mean, unless you have products or services to sell to other outside your own country, then you better look for other things that you can do better. We live in a world where we all benefit from doing what we are best at doing and use our minds and our efforts to promote a development taciturn that benefits all of us. So, this drama about being so scared about everybody else, I have never really taken onboard.