08/04/2002 (Agence Europe) - European External Relations Commissioner Chris Patten spoke at a conference in Singapore on Friday organised by the Asia-EU Foundation on the subject of the European Union's foreign policy and the challenges of globalisation, where he stressed the EU's desire to contribute to conflict prevention in Asia too, as was demonstrated by its reconciliation activity with regard to the two Koreas. For Korea, noted the last British governor of Hong Kong, there's no alternative than for Pyongyang to be admitted to the international community and for it to be opened, firstly in terms of the economy. EFE reports that Chris Patten's only concern in this connection was that Hong Kong politicians might lose the confidence they had had in 1997 (before becoming part of China again) since they have an enormous role to play in southeast Asia and to get the Chinese economy to open up to the outside world.