Shri Vikas Swarup, Official Spokesperson and JS (XP): Good evening friends and welcome to the special briefing on the Hon’ble Presidents forthcoming visits to Papua New Guinea and New Zealand.
As I had mentioned in my previous briefing, this is the first time that we are having a bilateral visit by Hon’ble Rashtrapati Ji to these two countries. To brief you on these two very important visits, I have with me Shri Venu Rajamony, my colleague, who is Press Secretary to the President and Shri Jaideep Mazumdar who is Joint Secretary South.
I think Joint Secretary South will give you a broad opening statement which will tell you the main issues that are expected to be taken up during these two visits. What are the outcomes that we expect, this will be supplemented by Press Secretary, who will maybe give you some more intimate details of the Presidents program and there after we can open this up for question answers. So with that I give the floor to Jaideep.
Jaideep Mazumdar, JS (South): Thank you Vikas. Good evening friends. As Vikas told you, Rashtrapati Ji is paying State visits to Papua New Guinea and New Zealand. This is from April 28 to May 02. He will be accompanied by an official delegation, which includes the Hon’ble Minister for Agriculture and Farmers Welfare, Shri Sanjeev Kumar Balyan and a multi-party delegation of Members of Parliament from both houses of Parliament.
Firstly PNG that is Papua New Guinea, RashtrapatiJi’s visit is the first ever State visit of the President of India to Papua New Guinea. In fact it is the first ever high level visit from India to Papua New Guinea. He is going there as a guest of the Governor General Sir Michael Ogio, and he will have meetings with Prime Minister Peter O’Neill and other leaders.
As you know the Prime Minister of Papua New Guinea had visited India last year for the second FIPIC Summit. In Papua New Guinea, Rashtrapati Ji will, apart from his meetings will also address a business event and an Indian community event and he will deliver a speech at the Papua New Guinea University.
This visit is part of our growing engagement with the Pacific Island countries. As you know the first FIPIC summit, the Forum for Indian Pacific Island Country Summit was held in Fiji and this was followed last year by second Summit was held in New Delhi and Jaipur. So this is a progression of that engagement. Papua New Guinea is the largest country among the Pacific Island countries with a population of about 8 million, little less than 8 million. And it is also the largest in terms of geographical size, almost half a million square kilometers. It is a country rich in oil and gas and in minerals like nickel, cobalt, and gold. India has had a High Commission in Papua New Guinea since 1996 and Papua New Guinea has set up High Commission in New Delhi in 2006.
In fact Fiji and Papua New Guinea are the only two countries among the Pacific Island countries where India has a resident presence. All other countries are concurrently looked after from other nations. As I said, the Prime Minister of Papua New Guinea had visited India in 2015 and the Speaker of the PNG Parliament had visited India in 2013. Papua New Guinea is looking towards India for many of his development needs, such as in the health sector, capacity building in IT, agriculture, and infrastructure development. A line of credit is being finalized for infrastructure projects to be done by India in Papua New Guinea.
The country is also home to about 2500 Indians and they are mostly educators, doctors, other professionals and members of the clergy. The agreements are under negotiation in the areas of agriculture, IT, infrastructure financing, and health.
Moving on to New Zealand, Rashtrapati Ji is paying a State visit to New Zealand as a guest of Governor General, Lieutenant General Hon’ble Sir Jerry Mateparae. This will also be the first ever visit by the President of India to New Zealand and is therefore viewed with great anticipation. Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi had visited New Zealand in 1986, which was the last high level visit from India to New Zealand.
The then Governor General of New Zealand had visited India in 2008, and 2010 and again in 2011. Prime Minister John Key has also visited India in 2011. Recently our two Prime Ministers met in a bilateral meeting on the margins of the Nuclear Security Summit in Washington on April 01, this year.
During his visit Rashtrapati Ji will have meetings with Governor General, the Prime Minister of New Zealand and the leader of the Opposition. He will also address a gathering of top New Zealand businessmen. He will also address an Indian community event hosted by our High Commissioner. Rashtrapati Ji will address students and faculty of the Auckland University of Technology and will interact with Indian students there.
According to New Zealand country strategy paper, its goal is to have India as a core trade, economic, and political partner. The visit is aimed at realizing that goal. New Zealand has traditionally been a friendly country to India. It supports India’s aspirations for permanent membership of the UN Security Council. It is home to a very large number of Persons of Indian Origin and Indian citizens. This numbers about 175,000 and constitutes largest group of skilled migrants. Out of this 175,000 as many as 67,000 are born in India.
The number of Indian students in New Zealand has grown exponentially over the last few years. It now numbers about 23,000 and last year alone, the growth was about 67 percent. New Zealand is also a magnet for Indian tourists. Last year 43,000 Indian tourists went to New Zealand and from the New Zealand side there were about 25,000 tourists to India. As some of you might have seen, several Malayalam, Bengali and Hindi movies have been shot recently in New Zealand and it familiarizes us with the spectacular scenery of New Zealand which is a draw for our tourists.
For the visit, apart from the strengths in agriculture and dairy-farming that New Zealand brings, it has certain unique high-technology skills and strengths as well. As some of you might know, many of our security systems that we use, whether it is in the Indian Parliament or it is in Hindustan Aeronautics or in ISRO or several other locations, are developed and installed by a New Zealand company. Our Mumbai Police uses amphibious boats which are manufactured by a New Zealand company.
The Cost Guards of India uses Jet propulsion engines in their patrol boats that are manufactured again by a New Zealand company. Air cargo handling systems, conveyor belts and even design of several malls in India has been done by a New Zealand company. Apart from that, New Zealand has great technological abilities in cold storage supply chain management and post-harvest technologies, which are of interest to us.
Agreements and MoUs in the field of air connectivity and education are expected to be signed during the visit. With this visit, we hope to energize and upgrade our bilateral relationship to a new level. Thank you for your attention.
Official Spokesperson: Venu, would like to supplement that.
Shri Venu Rajamony (Press Secretary to President): Thank you Vikas. Friends, good afternoon. The President of India is eagerly looking forward to his visit to the Papua New Guinea as well as New Zealand. He sees the Pacific region as a natural extension of our immediate neighborhood which is Southeast Asia. And with our Look-East policy, having evolved into an Act-East policy, the Pacific region has gained in even greater salience in both our strategic thinking as well as our economic engagement.
Most of India's foreign trade as all of you would know, flows through the sea-lanes of Indian Ocean as well as the Pacific. These lanes bring us the bulk of our energy, whether it be oil, gas or coal. India shares a large number of commonalities with the region as a whole and the two countries that he is visiting in particular. Democracy is the most important of them all. English language is a common factor. The fact that both these countries have vibrant economies is an important factor and both of them have significant Indian diaspora which cements the relationship.
In the recent times as Jaideep mentioned, Bollywood and Indian films have been a factor which has brought New Zealand and India together just as much as Cricket has always been a common link between the two countries.
As far as Papua New Guinea is concerned, Jaideep mentioned the fact that during the FIPIC Summit, the Prime Minister of Papua New Guinea was here. He was received by the President in Rashtrapati Bhawan. Many of you might recall the fact that this happened almost immediately after his spouse passed away. Still the President went ahead, did not change this important International engagement and met the leaders of the Pacific Island countries who had come including the Prime Minister of Papua New Guinea.
He sees his visit as marking a new beginning. For both these countries, it is the first time ever that a State visit is taking place. The goal is to establish a much stronger relationship with Papua New Guinea which is the largest, both in terms of population and geography, as has been mentioned.
India also has the largest volume of bilateral trade with Papua New Guinea, over US $200 million and the President hopes that this visit will be a precursor of intensified economic development as well as security cooperation which will help us realize the untapped potential in bilateral relations with Papua New Guinea as well as with New Zealand.
Let me mention that the President in his various capacities that in which he has functioned in the past, has never had a chance to visit the Pacific Island so he has never been to Papua New Guinea before. He has never been to any of the Pacific Islands before.
He has been to New Zealand previously in 1995. He went there for the Auckland Commonwealth Summit. Those of you who have read the second volume of his memoirs, you will find a detailed section there, narrating his experiences in Auckland. That was the summit when President Nelson Mandela attended for the first time after being released from prison and he was the hero who dominated the entire summit. It was also the summit which was held immediately after there was a military coup in Nigeria and the Commonwealth collectively i.e. India, South Africa and all other countries were very strong in voicing their concern and their unhappiness over the fact that a democratic regime had been over thrown in Nigeria.
So the Auckland Summit was very important for many reasons and that has been recorded in detail in the President's memoirs which you may wish to look at before those who are traveling with the President or those who are watching the visit closely.
The President has not been to New Zealand after so that was his first and last visit.
Just one minute detail, Jaideep had mentioned that a multi-party delegation would travel along with him. Jaideep has already mentioned, there are three Members of Parliament, who are travelling with him. One is Shri Pratap Singh Bajwa of the Congress party, Rajya Sabha from Punjab. The second is Shri Ram Swaroop Sharma BJP member, Lok Sabha from Mandi, Himachal Pradesh and the third is Dr. Hari Babu from Visakhapatnam, Andhra Pradesh. Also from the Bhartiya Janta Party from Loksabha. Thank you.
Official Spokesperson: The floor is now open for questions.
Question: …(Inaudible)….
Official Spokesperson: Well, the President leaves on the night of 27 April and returns by noon of May 02.
Question: My question is specifically to Jaideep. You mentioned that they are interested, Papa New Guinea is very much interested in the healthcare sector with India. But the unfortunate part of it is that the Government over there, Papua New Guinea has not allowed Indian companies there. Indian pharma company’s entry is not there, neither the medicines. The people of the Papua New Guinea are not getting the benefits of the cheap medicines of the Indian pharma companies. And a related question to this is, in light of the recent development of TPP, the RCEP negotiations is in process and it is taking place in Perth. So can you tell us the details of some highlights of the RCEP negotiations and we hear that there are some problems in the area of Intellectual Property Rights which is under negotiation and the TPP members there are stressing to dilute the intellectual property regime.
JS (South): I thank you for those questions. Firstly, on the issue of Indian pharmaceuticals in Papua New Guinea, the Prime Minister has lifted the ban on Indian pharmaceuticals as of January this year and therefore the Government of Papua New Guinea is very keen that Indian Pharma Companies come back into Papa New Guinea and we are looking at variety of instruments by which the health sector in Papua New Guinea can be assisted with the lifting of this ban.
On the negotiations that are going on regarding RCEP I will not go into the details of it. Firstly, of course this is a briefing specifically for the purposes of the visit of the President to Papua New Guinea and New Zealand, but apart from that let me just say that those negotiations are progressing and on our side we have certain reservations about pushing trade in goods at the cost of services so therefore we are maintaining the line that there has to be a comprehensive look at both issues and IPR’s are of course issues that we will address within RCEP. They have to be addressed so those negotiations are progressing and I would not go so far to say that some TPP members are undermining IPRs within the RCEP negotiations. I will leave it at that for now.
Question: Sir, as we know that Papua New Guinea is very rich in oil and natural gas and there are some companies operating and supplying gas to China, Japan and other South East countries. Whether we are looking at any kind of a cooperation in the energy sector and secondly what Venu has mentioned about security cooperation. Can you elaborate on that? What kind of security cooperation we are expecting?
JS (South): Again thank you for those questions.
On the issue of natural gas Petronet of India has a MoU with Petromin of Papua New Guinea. They have a 22.5 percent off-take right on LNG from the Gulf Terminal. They have not yet chosen to exercise that right, but it is there and not only Petronet but other Indian Oil and Gas majors would also be interested and this is something that we will pursue after the visit.
That is one, on security cooperation, security itself has very wide connotations. We have security from traditional factors as well as non-traditional factors such as piracy, poaching of fishing rights in territorial waters etc. and exclusive economic zone. So as we have offered, even during the FIPIC Summit, coastal surveillance radars for Pacific Island countries. We are open to assisting them with patrol craft to patrol their Maritime areas so these kind of cooperation are what we have offered to the Pacific Island countries. Thank you.
Question: As you mentioned, 23,000 Indian students are studying in New Zealand and a discernible rise of 67% registered last year. Do we have corresponding figures in terms of the students coming from New Zealand and do we have any exchange programs to encourage those students coming here?
JS (South): No, I am sorry. I do not have The figure of New Zealand students studying in India.
Official Spokesperson: I am sure New Zealand High Commission should have those figures.
Question: Sir, can I ask something else. Other than this topic.
Official Spokesperson: This is a press conference exclusively on the President’s visit to Papua New Guinea and New Zealand. There is no other issue that will be addressed at this press conference. For other questions, there is a press conference on 4:00 p.m. Thursday.
That concludes the press conference. Thank you all.
(Concludes)