Ministry of External Affairs Government of India

Official Spokesperson, Shri Gopal Baglay: Let’s start. For those of you who do not know, perhaps you would be getting updates on your handset, Ms. Uzma Ahmad has arrived in India. She is right now with our High Commission with government officials at the airport and they will soon be making their way to JNB. So let us try and wind up this session so that you can have a break then we can look forward to the interaction that you are going to have with the External Affairs Minister and Ms. Ahmad.

I have an announcement to make on the forthcoming visit of the Prime Minister of Mauritius to India. His Excellency Mr. Pravind Kumar Jugnauth, who will be on a State visit to India from 26 to 28 May, 2017 with 27th May as the main working day of engagements.

This will be his first visit abroad after assuming the office of the Prime Minister of Mauritius in January this year. The Prime Minister of Mauritius will be accompanied by his spouse Mrs. Kobita Ramdanee Jugnauth, Deputy Prime Minister His Excellency Mr. Ivan Collendavelloo and three senior officials including the Cabinet Secretary and Finance Secretary to the Government of Mauritius.

Prime Minister Jugnauth will be accorded a ceremonial welcome where he will inspect a Guard of Honor at the Rashtrapati Bhawan on the 27th May forenoon. This will be followed by a visit to Rajghat to tributes to the father of Nation, Mahatma Gandhi.

His official engagements include calls on the President of India and Vice President of India, delegation level talks with the Prime Minister and calls on the Hon’ble Prime Minister of Mauritius by our External Affairs Minister, the Defence and Finance Minister, the Home Minister, the Minister of State, Independent Charge for Petroleum and Natural Gas and other leaders.

Prime Minister Jugnauth will address a business event in New Delhi jointly organized by Apex chambers of Commerce and Industry, CII, FICCI and Assocham on 26th may i.e. tomorrow. He will also be felicitated in a civic reception hosted by the India Foundation on 27th May, 2017. India and Mauritius as you know have indelible linkages of history, ethnicity, culture and language which have shaped the unique relations between the two countries over the years.

The diverse and multifaceted bilateral ties gained significant momentum following Prime Minister’s landmark visit to Mauritius in March 2015. Prime Minister Jugnauth’s forthcoming visit to India is a part of our continuing engagement with the Government of Mauritius at the highest level and reflects the special ties between our two countries. With that I end my announcement. You can ask questions now.

Question: you would have seen statements by Pakistani retired Lt. General who has had links with the intelligence community of his country about the fact that Kulbhushan Jadhav was brought by Pakistani authorities from Iran. Now could you just tell us what the government has to say on this and what it means vis-à-vis the situation at the ICJ and everything else?

Official Spokesperson, Shri Gopal Baglay: Without venturing into commenting on what the former Lt. General of Pakistan, you referred to, has said because I don’t know what position he held or he holds now, but I would draw your attention to what the government has been saying since last year which is that Kulbhushan Jadhav had been kidnapped from Iran and in the absence of consular access to him the circumstances of his presence in Pakistan remains unexplained.

ICJ matter, as you know, is sub-judice. We all welcome and we had a great relief last week when the ICJ passed on the order for provisional measures. Beyond that I think it’s not within my competence to comment. It’s up to the court to decide what it will do in future and when the court proceedings unfold as they unfold, as they go on, we will have to see what facts are to be submitted to ICJ that is up to the legal team which the government has assembled.

Question: Pakistan’s propaganda machinery has been working furiously over the last two days. We have seen that video being released by Pakistan and yesterday the ISPR, the Pakistani Military’s media wing has put out a tweet, a press release saying that Indian forces have targeted a UNMOGIT vehicle. Later on the UN Secretary General’s office themselves clarified and rejected this saying that there is no evidence of any UNMOGIP vehicle being targeted. How do you see this?

Official Spokesperson, Shri Gopal Baglay: I would say that I understand that with the UN clarification the matter should rest at that. I cannot understand the need to discuss the matter any further and obviously as you know the Indian forces stationed along the line of control or International border, they do not initiate ceasefire violations. They respond only to ceasefire violations from the other side which are many times given to cover the infiltrators and even that they do with a great sense of responsibility, restraint and in a very calibrated manner.

Question: NSG membership ko lekar China ke official pravakta ne do din pehle kaha hai ki hamari stithi wahi hai, jo purana unka rukh tha. To kya Bharat isko lekar kis tarah se sochta hai, kis tarah se aagey badhega kyonki China ne apna rukh badla nahi hai?

Official Spokesperson, Shri Gopal Baglay: NSG ki sadasyata ko lekarke jo hamare prayas hain wo jaari hain. Uske sandarbh hum jin bhi deshon se, sabhi sadasya deshon se hum baat kar rahe they aur abhi bhi baat kar rahe hain. Aur hum unse aagey bhi baat kartey rahenge, ispar hamare prayason mein koi kami nahi aai hai aur aane wali bhi nahi hai.

Question: Kulbhushan Jadhav ke maamle mein appeal honi thi, unki mercy appeal bhi honi thi, kis-kis star par appeal honi thi, us maamle mein kya development hai? Kahin appeal hui, kahin accept hui ya nahi, aapko chargesheet mila ki nahi?

Official Spokesperson, Shri Gopal Baglay: Jo humne pichhale hafte kaha tha uske baad stithi mein koi badlaav nahi hai. Hamari jaankari mei koi badlaav nahi aaya hai. Kulbhushan Jadhav ji ki mataji ne jo appeal aur petition bheji thi, high commission ke jariye wo hum logo ne Pakistan Sarkar ke hawale kar diya tha. Unki kya stithi hai, is sambandh mein hamein koi jankari nahi hai aur humein is baat ki bhi koi jaankari nahi hai ki unke upar kya charges they aur court ke jo baaki document humne maange they wo bhi abhi hamare sangyaan mein nahi aaye hain.

Question: Kulbhushan Jadhav ke mother ne jo petition bheja hai wo High Commission ne directly court mein file nahi kiya?

Official Spokesperson, Shri Gopal Baglay: Wo jo petition aur appeal hai, usmein jis tareeke se wo kiya jana hai, Pakistan ka jo sambaddh kanoon hai uske aadhar par kiya jana hai aur usmein kuch pravdhaan hain jinke hisaab se hi wo kiya jana hai. Kyonki sambandhit vyakti ne wo appeal file kari hai Kulbhushan Jadhav ne ya nahi, humein pata nahi. Unka jeevan bahumulya hai, unka jeevan bachane ke liye, khas taur pe unke parivar ki jo chinta hai uske liye unki mataji ne petition bheja tha.

High Commission jo kar sakta tha wo ye ki humne unko Pakistan Sarkar ke hawale kiya.

Question: Over the weekend, an Indian national from Mumbai was arrested in Islamabad. Has India applied for consular access? Also three Pakistani were arrested from Bangalore, any update on that?

Official Spokesperson, Shri Gopal Baglay: Aap Sheikh Nabi ki baat kar rahe hain. Sheikh Nabi ke baare mein jab reports humne dekhi to turant hi humne Pakistan ke videsh mantralay se sampark kiya.

We had asked them for facts and we have also asked for consular access to him. We await the response to our request. Your question about three other individuals, I would suggest that you could direct your question to concerned agency or Home Ministry. I don’t have the details at this moment.

Question: The fact that Uzma Ahmad has crossed over Wagah and she is coming to meet us, if the Pakistan had wanted to make things difficult they could have gone to Supreme Court and so on, that did not happen. Would that suggest softening of Pakistan’s attitude towards India, do you think? Number two, have the Pakistani asked for a possible meeting between the two Prime Ministers when Mr. Modi goes to Astana?

Official Spokesperson, Shri Gopal Baglay: On your second question, I am not aware of any such request that we have received so far.

On your first question, I think I should let it remain for the interaction. You will hear from the lady concerned and our External Affairs Minister will also speak about it.

External Affairs Minister has tweeted that she is welcome and she is daughter of India. We are relieved that she is back home. I would leave it at that at this stage.

Question: Sukhoi vimano ke laapta hone par China se koi madad officially mangi gai hai ya Sarkari star par ye soochna China ko di gai hai?

Official Spokesperson, Shri Gopal Baglay: Iske sambandh mein mujhe koi jaankari nahi hai.

Question: Reports came out yesterday quoting the Petronet CEO that India and Japan have agreed to set up a 250 million dollar LNG import plant in Sir Lanka. Can you give us some information on that?

Official Spokesperson, Shri Gopal Baglay: As you know we spoke a couple of weeks ago about this. In fact last month when the Prime Minister of Sri Lanka had visited. There are various projects which the government of India and the government of Sri Lanka have agreed to undertake jointly. They are in various fields like in the field of infrastructure, energy etc.

At the moment I don’t know whether Japan is involved in one of them or are you referring to a separate project?

At the moment I do not have information on participation of Japan or any other country.

I think this media interaction comes to a close now.