Ministry of External Affairs Government of India

Shri Vikas Swarup, Official Spokesperson: Good evening friends and welcome to the weekly press briefing. Before that we have a special press briefing for you on Vice President’s forthcoming visits to Morocco and Tunisia.

To brief you on these two very important visits, I have with me, Secretary Economic Relations, Shri Amar Sinha and Shri Satbir Singh, who is Joint Secretary West Asia and North Africa and we are expecting Shri Anshuman Gaur, the OSD to the Vice President to join us shortly.

Secretary ER will give you a broad opening statement which would set the tone for you to understand these two visits and after that he will be open to taking questions on the specific visits by the VP to these two countries. With that the floor is Secretary ER’s.

Shri Amar Sinha, Secretary Economic Relations: Good afternoon. Welcome to our weekly briefing. Today we are here to announce that Vice President Hamid Ansari and his wife Smt. Salma Ansari along with a delegation which includes MoS, Fertilizer and Chemicals and four Members of Parliament would be visiting both Morocco and Tunisia.

Morocco segment is basically from 30^th of May to 1^st of June. On 2^nd and 3^rd June he will be in Tunisia. As you would notice, we have chosen these two because these two are great examples of democracy which have adjusted to post Arab spring situation in the region and have been close partners historically for India.

This is the time for Africa, and he will set the ball rolling. A series of visits have been planned and this is the first follow up of the high level India-Africa summit that we had held last October, where the King of Morocco himself had come for a week and Tunisia was represented by a Minister.

I need not go into the history, which we can give you as written text. This is also the 50^th year anniversary, since we recognized independence of Morocco in 1956. The visit is happening after a long time i.e. 17 years now. Prime Minister had visited in 1999. At the level of Vice President, it’s happening after 50 years.

So there is great excitement. The feedback that we have got from these countries is that they are really looking forward to it. Both these countries are extremely important in the context of the regional developments, what is happening in terrorism - so these are our key partners.

Both these countries are key partners in our food security because as you know that there is tremendous dependence on phosphoric fertilizers in India and in both these countries we have investments from private sector. In Morocco, its Chambal Fertilizers and Tata Chemicals which has a plant of half a million tonnes, which we buy-back the phosphoric acid here. And similarly, in Tunisia we have Gujarat Fertilizer and Coromandal Fertilizers which have invested jointly and there are some other investments also. Our car and truck manufacturers are also looking at it. This is a very prospective market.

Among the issues that we will be discussing besides regional issues, is how to strengthen our outreach to Africa generally. Also Morocco wants to pose itself as a gateway to francophone Africa that is one of the key issues why Vice President decided to go there.

Vice President also had, if I am not mistaken, served in Morocco. In 1965-66 he had served there as a diplomat. In terms of other issues we would be discussing Terrorism, UN Security Council expansion on which Morocco supports India’s candidature.

For deepening our investment and trade relations with Morocco, we have substantial trade of over a billion dollars in favour of Morocco, basically because we import a lot of fertilizer from there.

With Tunisia, it is slightly less, but there is scope of increasing. Tunisia is also looking at India’s expertise in Gas & Oil field sector. We have formed a joint venture in 2007. They have been, sort of pressing us, to get the minister of Petroleum and Gas there, and we should perhaps do a follow up sometime.

In terms of the elements of programme in both these countries, the host would be the Prime Minister or the Head of the Government.

In Morocco, it will be the Head of Government and in Tunisia it’s the Prime Minister. There would be meetings with the King in Morocco and with the President in Tunisia. He will be meeting the intellectuals, the Imams, and addressing the diplomatic community at Tunisian Institute of Strategic Studies. He will talk to them about India and how India looks at the world and India’s position in the 21^st century.

We are of course looking at a number of MoUs to be signed which will focus on capacity building and sharing of India’s expertise in various areas in which they look up to India.

We are also looking at some cultural exchanges because as you know that Indian culture, particularly the film industry has a tremendous draw in Morocco. If I am not mistaken, only recently one of the movie stars has just come back after shooting one of their movies in Morocco. So Morocco is particularly developing as a destination for Indian film industry, so they are also very keen to work on this.

And of course, we are also looking at MoUs in Information Technology, Education, and Communication Technology. Tunisia, interestingly is also interested to learn from the Indian handicraft sector. How to revive their own handicraft sector, they wish to do that.

Between these two countries, Morocco has been completely insulated from what happened in the region in terms of ISIS influence and radicalization.

Tunisia has unfortunately, due to its geography has suffered major attacks. As a mark of solidarity we are going to the Bardo museum also, which was under attack last year, if you remember.

He would be visiting some historical sites like Carthage which actually links it to the old. Actually Tunisians say that the Carthaginian empire was the counter point of Roman empire.

So there will be a mix of history, culture and of course building on our contemporary relationship as we have laid out in the action plan. I will stop here. If you have questions, I will be happy to take them.

Shri Vikas Swarup, Official Spokesperson. Good, if there are no more questions on Vice President’s visit, then this particular press briefing comes to a close.

Thank you.

(Concludes)