Newly-appointed German Foreign Minister Guido Westerwelle said today that in his view there were "no small states in Europe" and that all European states deserved equal respect, according to dpa. The minister was laying out his policy priorities for the new German government to parliament, following elections in September. Westerwelle, the leader of the liberal Free Democrats (FDP), said that German foreign policy would be characterised by an explicit interest in furthering relations with eastern Europe. "It is called the European Union - not the West European Union," he said. "The deep friendship that we have had with our western neighbours, we can have that also with our eastern neighbours," he added.
