Rudolf Scharping, a former German defense minister, has appealed to the EU to abandon the "logic of sanctions" and restart the ratification of the China-EU Comprehensive Agreement on Investment. He also spoke highly of "value-based realism" in handling international affairs as countries have to respect, understand and talk to each other. He stressed that a transplanted model of democracy can never work as democracy is a "cultural process" that has to be handled within a society itself.