Opening Statement (Vice President Hamid Ansari): I hope everyone enjoyed the two very brief stopovers in Brunei and Bangkok. Brunei may be a new place, but Bangkok surely, at least half the crowd here has visited before. All I have to say is that you know everything. These were two visits being made at the level of Vice President after a very long gap. These things happen in governments.
But in both places, the discussions were very positive. We were very well received. A signal given to us was that they are keen on developing their relations with India in different fields. We talked about specifics. Unsettled things in Brunei, other certain things and some common things in Bangkok. But everywhere, I mean the chemistry was right, the responses were very positive and the hospitality was very gracious. Thank you
Abu Maathen George (DS, XPD): Thank you, Sir, for your remarks. The floor is now open for questions. Please identify yourself and please be brief
Question: Sir, in Bangkok, in your banquet speech as well as in your address at the university, you spoke invited Thailand to contribute to national resurgence through participation in ‘Make in India’, Digital India, Skill India. What was their response in concrete terms? Also, linked up with this, as you know post-coup, Thailand has turned very overtly towards China. In that sense what are Prime Minister Prayut’s views on developing relations with India?
Vice-President: Well, the first part of your question. The new initiatives taken by the government are, and, in fact, have opened up new investment opportunities; and therefore the whole idea of flagging it to them was that these are new areas of investment in which they can be active partners to mutual benefit - that is the thrust of the visit.
Your second question. Thailand has traditionally maintained a very careful relationship with its northern neighbour, which is not surprising because if you’ve got a big neighbour in your immediate vicinity, you have to be careful. But that does not detract from their desire to have a good relationship with India. This is not something new, this has always been so.
Question: This is a different question. Sir, you have been a career diplomat all your life, I mean your working life. Now you are continuing to carry the flag of India as Vice President also, continuing your diplomacy. Do you feel any change in the way nations respond to you, to India now and then, the difference, how they are responding?
Vice-President: If you are talking of my first janam (birth), that was 16 years back. In 16 years India has changed. India’s capabilities have changed. India’s challenges have changed. So, it will not be fair to say that the two are, as if time had stopped. Time had not stopped. If you take a 10 or 15 year read out on Indian economy, there has been a consistent growth pattern, way above that of most other countries in the world. Similarly, India’s capabilities, defence capabilities and technological capabilities have all gone up by leaps and bounds.
Question: In Brunei, we saw that the Muara port which is very vital for India also, has been sort of rebuilt by the Chinese. When we compare that with the Sri Lankan experience of Hambantota, do you think we should have been more active as far as infrastructure building in Southeast Asia is concerned because ports like Muara are extremely important for India’s energy security in the future. That’s first. And second, did you have any discussion on Myanmar with your Thai hosts?
Vice-President: The short answer to the last question is ‘No’, because we are aware that there are sensitivities which go deep into history. Thailand and Myanmar at different points fought wars with each other. So that was not a question on my list of subjects to be discussed and nor was it raised by the other side. As far as port building is concerned, I am not aware of what has happened in Sri Lanka, but I mean, I have read about it here and there, but I don’t know the details. As far as port building capacities are concerned, you see, one has to cut the cloth to the size of the cloth. We have our own engagement with building our capacities. We are building our own ports. Now, whether we can go out and build other people’s ports is something that remains to be seen.
We are working on the other side on our western borders, building up the Chabahar port, which will give us access to Afghanistan through Iran and to Central Asia, again through Iran. So, these are things which will come as our capacity develops. But right now our focus is on building up our own ports, infrastructure.
Question: Is there any possibility of India’s involvement in the electoral process of Thailand, because Thai Prime Minister has announced that elections will be conducted very soon… What are possibilities of India being an observer or providing EVMs…
Vice-President: We don’t volunteer our involvement. The world knows our knowledge and experience in conducting electoral exercises again and again and again, but we don’t volunteer. To the best of my knowledge, there has been no such request. If and when a request is made, we will consider it on its own merits.
Question: Yesterday, you had a meeting with Indologists and several other Indian diaspora members in Thailand. So I’d like you to throw some light on that as well… Your meeting with the Indologists
Vice-President: You see, I said there and I don’t mind repeating it. I don’t like the term Indologist. I don’t like the term Sinologist, orientalist. All this was invented in the 18th, 19th century by Europeans for a variety of reasons. There are people who study India, just like there are people who study Thailand, who study China, who study other countries. So, the purpose of the exercise of the scholars who came to meet us yesterday was that they are working on studying India in different areas of their interest. Some of it relates to classical languages like Sanskrit, philosophy, history, others relate to more modern things. But the important point, I mean the message given to me by that meeting was that this is not a one way exercise. They said all right, you are talking about Thais studying India, but what about Indians studying Thais?. Now, we have not focused on that enough. There are not enough people (in India) who are studying Thai language. If you don’t study the language of a country, you cannot study that country whether it is Japan, China or anywhere else in the world.
Now, the Indian community in Thailand is a success story. It is a huge community. It has been there in different generations. They have done extremely well in their chosen walk of life and there are possibilities, apart from business possibilities. I think as investment possibilities open up in India, they will respond to it. You see, what is the prime motivation of anybody who is an investor or a businessman? To go into a venture, where he or she can make can money. So, if you open up opportunities as we have, people will come and take a hard look at it and take their own decisions. We can’t force them to do it, but we can make the possibilities available to them.
Question: Sir, if you were to tell us about one big takeaway from each of the two nations you have visited. We are aware of all the issues that you have discussed, but if you could just pinpoint to the one big thing that you might have achieved today.
Vice-President: Well, let me start with the place we just left today. We have some permanent interests as far as Thailand is concerned. Thailand is a maritime neighbour. Maritime security is a critical area in which we have an interest, they have an interest. And maritime security in all its dimensions, not only to keep sea lanes open, but also keep sea lanes available for emerging trends in commercial traffic. Also, to protect sea lanes from threats whether they are conventional threats or non-conventional threats. So that is one area. Connectivity with Thailand is something we are working on and once the Trilateral Highway works up, that will become a real possibility of movement of container traffic by road. The third thing is that Thailand is a critically big member country of ASEAN. We have consciously taken policy decisions to develop a vibrant multi-dimensional relationship with ASEAN. We see it as an area of co-prosperity, also an area where common security perceptions can be developed. So, I think, in the case of Thailand, the objectives are clearly identified and we will see good results coming up.
The same holds with Brunei. A much smaller country, but yet an important member of ASEAN and a supplier of energy to us. We discussed with them and got a very positive initial response about the possibility of fertiliser production using Brunei gas in Brunei, which will be a mutual win-win because it would provide one kind of industrialisation in Brunei. In Brunei it will open up employment opportunities to their nationals.
Question: If I may ask a question to minister Haribhai ji. What is your assessment of the terrorist problem in India? Our threat perception from terrorist attacks in the days to come, what is your strategy? Vice-president, terrorism figured prominently in your talks in both Brunei and Thailand. And with Thailand especially very important for us from counter-terror cooperation point of view, what is your takeaway and in what way are we planning to take it forward?
Vice-President: Look, unavoidably, we have reached a stage today where terrorism is a subject of discussion in all conversations. Because whether it is in Americas, whether it is in Europe, whether it is in West Asia, South Asia, Southeast Asia, East Asia, every country in one form or the other is facing the problem of terrorism. So, terrorism is on everybody’s agenda. And the need to cooperate in checking terrorism is becoming increasingly clear. I think that has been the great gain of recent years that it is no longer a perception of ‘haan kahin hua hoga, humko koi matlab nahi, ab sabko matlab hai’(yes it happened somewhere, we have nothing to do with it, now everybody is concerned). With or without linkages, the problem has become unfortunately, it is like a pandemic. A health hazard travels across countries. A security hazard also travels across countries.
(Thank you sir for the media interaction)