Ministry of External Affairs Government of India

Official Spokesperson, Shri Gopal Baglay: Namashkar Mitron! Aap sab ka bahut bahut swagat hai.

A very warm welcome to all of you. As you are aware through our SMS today we are going to have on record briefing in the context of forthcoming visits of the Prime Minister to Germany, Spain, Russia and France. So for that I have with two of my friends and great colleagues, Shri G V Srinivas, Jt. Secretary (Eurasia) for briefing us all on the Prime Minister’s visit to Russia. We also have Shri Randhir Jaiswal, Jt. Secretary (West Europe) for briefing on Prime Minister’s visit to Germany, Spain and France. Without much ado let me hand over the floor to GV for the briefing on Russia.

Jt. Secretary (Eurasia), Shri G V Srinivas: Thank you Gopal. Prime Minister Shri Modi will be visiting Russia beginning May 31, then he will be having his bilateral meeting with President Putin on June 01 and on 02 June he would be participating in St. Petersburg International Economic Forum. All these things are happening in St. Petersburg for the first in the history of India and Russia relations, the bilateral summit will be taking place outside Moscow.

We all know that the strategic partnership between the two countries was established in the year 2000 which was raised to the level of Special and Privileged Strategic Partnership in the year 2010. Ever since Russia is the only country with which we have annual summits. This will be the 18th Series. On the first day i.e. June 01 when the Prime Minister will be having interaction with President Putin, he would be having the standard restricted talks, delegation level talks followed by interaction with the CEOs Forum which will be assembling there separately.

Agreements which would have been ready by then would be signed followed by media interaction. That will be the main segment in the afternoon time which will be followed thereafter by one-to-one dinner between President Putin and Prime Minister Modi. This is something which has been found to be extremely useful for the leaders to connect and interact with each other on issues of interest to them which will continue even during this Summit in St. Petersburg.

Just to give you a backdrop of entire thing, as we all know that the last summit had happened in Goa in October 2016 and in less than a year President and Prime Minister will be meeting again in St. Petersburg. The fact that the summit is happening in St. Petersburg along with the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum reconfirms the point that there is emphasis in enhancing, strengthening trade and economic relations because we all know that India-Russia relations in the area of Defence, Nuclear & Space are already very very ahead.

In the area of trade and economy there are efforts made to take the trade up to 10 billion but it has come down for a variety of reasons hovering around 7 billion dollars. Investment itself has done a great job last year particularly, reaching almost to the target which was set by the leaders of the two countries i.e. 30 billion dollars by 2025. Investment has already reached almost that level but in the trade area we need to do a lot. A couple of ideas are there on the table which are being pursued and new areas are being added.

People to people relations, science & technology collaborations, there are many things that has happened. If I recount all that has happened since the last summit till now when they will be meeting again, the highlights of them will be a series of governments from Russian region has come and interacted with our leaders here which essentially means that we are going beyond the national level to the sub-national level where the regions of Russia and states of India are interacting with each other because we all know that the real trade and business actually happens at the level of not only states but also at the level of cities.

Foreign Secretary had been to Moscow in the month of March for Foreign Office Consultations and also of course for the preparations of the summit. It was preceded by National Security Advisor’s visit in January and he actually visited again yesterday he finished his second visit in the same year. Our Defence Minister was also there in Russia in Moscow in the month of April.

You can see that a lot of preparatory engagements have happened since the last summit. The intensity of engagement with Russia has enhanced. There are many others which I am not recounting for the benefit of brevity here. With that I would just say that we are looking ahead with this very important visit to Russia. Thank you.

Official Spokesperson, Shri Gopal Baglay: Thank you very much GV. Now I will request Shri Randhir Jaiswal for his briefing on the visits to Germany, Spain and France.

Jt. Secretary (West Europe), Shri Randhir Jaiswal: Good afternoon friends. We have the Prime Minister visiting three countries in the Europe West region that I look after.

Prime Minister will be travelling to Germany on 29 May 25, 2017 for the 4th Indo-German Inter-governmental Consultations. This is a unique format that we have with Germany wherein both the leaders are assisted by ministers to carry forward bilateral and global discussions.

Let me give you a brief outline of what the program looks like. PM will arrive in Berlin on 29th in the evening. Same day in the evening we have a meeting scheduled with Chancellor Merkel at Schloss Meseberg which is the country retreat of the German Chancellor. Both the leaders will discuss issues of regional and global importance over dinner there. The following day i.e. on 30th May, PM and Chancellor Merkel will hold the 4th IGC to review the state of our bilateral relations.

As I told you they will be assisted by several ministers from both sides. Both the leaders will be taking stock of where we stand on the decisions that were taken at the 3rd IGC which was held in New Delhi in October 2015. They will also talk about what are the future issues that the two sides will like to look into so as to strengthen and deepen Indo-German relations further.

Some of the ministers who will be participating from our side include Minister for Science & Technology Dr. Harshvardhan, Minister for New and Renewable Energy Shri Piyush Goyal, Minister for State for Commerce and Industry, Smt. Nirmala Seetharaman and Minister of State for External Affairs Shri M J Akbar.

Similarly, from the German side, for those who are interested, we have the Foreign Minister of Germany Mr. Sigmar Gabriel, Education Minister Mrs. Johanna Wanka, Transport Minister Mr. Dobrindt, Development Cooperation Minister Mr. Gerd Muller and Environment Minister Ms. Barbara Hendricks, Economic Minister Ms. Brigitte Zypries..

Several MoUs are expected to be signed. This would obviously broaden the scope and expand the canvas of bilateral cooperation that we have with Germany. Thereafter PM and Chancellor Merkel will jointly address India-German Business Summit. Before that they will interact with a select group of CEOs keeping in mind that economic relations with Germany is most important pillar of our partnership. It has preponderance over other areas.

Towards late afternoon Prime Minister will call on German President, His Excellency Dr. Frank-Walter Stein Meier and thereafter in the evening he will depart for Spain.

Just to give you a very brief outline of what are the areas that we are looking at, obviously Germany and India are strategic partners. We have a strategic partnership going back to 2000, our economic partnership is very strong. It is the largest trade partner for India in the European Union. It is also one of the leading sources of Foreign Direct Investment into India. We have more than 1600 German companies and 600 joint ventures here in India and German economic profile supports excellence, expertise match into our development priorities be it Make in India, Clean India, Skill India, Digital India, Smart Cities so on and so forth.

Skill cooperation is an important component. Many of you here would be aware of global reputation of Dual-Vet system of training that Germany has. We have initiated cooperation on the skill side and we want to take it further, several areas of work is underway. We look forward to deepening this particular aspect of our bilateral cooperation during the visit.

Thereafter we have development cooperation which is a broad area of cooperation. It is one of our leading technology partners, it is also one of our science & technology partners. In the field of education we have large number of students now going to Germany. On the global partnership, our two countries are continuously engaged on several global issues of common concerns including expansion of the UN Security Council, how we deal with terrorism worldwide and also on other issues of importance in the multilateral arena. So those will be the areas by large which we will be discussing in our efforts to strengthen India Germany relations.

Thereafter Prime Minister goes to Spain. This visit to Spain by our Prime Minister is happening almost after 30 years. The last visit was in 1988 when then Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi travelled to Madrid. But nonetheless our Prime Minister did have an interaction with the President of the Government of Spain, His Excellency Mr. Mariano Rajoy in Antalya in November 2015 on the sidelines of G20 Summit.

Prime Minister will have official engagements, meetings thereafter a luncheon with President Rajoy before that he will be calling on the King of Spain, King Felipe VI and also hold a round-table interaction with select group of CEOs from Spain who are keen to invest and expand their presence in India.

Economic partnership is an important pillar of our engagement with Spain. There are almost 200 Spanish companies here in India but more importantly the Spanish expertise and competencies fit very well into our own national priority programs. Some of you here would know the Spanish reputation in the field of renewable energy, in the speed of high speed rail, infrastructure, tunneling, technology solution including civil aviation, air space management, waste water management so on and so forth.

We look forward to engaging Spain and their businesses in our national development programs and priority programs and see how best we can further strengthen their business presence thereafter our own bilateral cooperation. Discussions with Spain will not be limited to bilateral issues. We will be discussing global issues of common concerns. Terrorism and cooperation in counter-terrorism will be an important element of that agenda.

Then from Spain, Prime Minister will be travelling to Russia and after Russia he comes back to France. He will be in Paris on the evening of 2nd June and on 3rd June he has official engagement with the newly elected President of France, His Excellency Mr. Emmanuel Macron.

The two leaders will have an official meeting and thereafter Prime Minister returns to India. France as you know is a leading strategic partner for India. We have very strong ongoing cooperation in the fields of strategic areas, space area, civil nuclear area, defence area and economic area. Also on global partnership they are an important member of Security Council. We are closely working with them on several issues of common concerns. All these issues will be discussed. It will be opportune moment for our leaders to meet and take the relationship forward. Thank you so much.

Official Spokesperson, Shri Gopal Baglay: Thank you very much Randhir and GV. We now open the floor for a few questions. We will take all questions, first on Russia and then on Germany, Spain and France.

Question: You know this has been several months since Mr. Kabakin passed away. Russians have not sent his replacement and India is supposedly dragging its feet on signing an agreement, Kudankulam and Russian at one point of time was not pro Pakistan but now relations between the two countries are growing. These and the trade is down to 7 billion from 10 billion. These things would suggest certain cooling of relationship between the two countries. Do you agree? Thanks.

Question: Russia ke Rashtrapati abhi haal mein One Belt One Road ke forum mein hissa lene China gaye hue they, Bharat ko us maamle mein sarv-bhaumikta ko lekar chinta hai. To kya Russia ki yatra mein is baat ko Pradhan Mantri uthayenge?

Question: Russia ke saath jis tarah se rishte thande hote jaa rahe hain aur China Pakistan ke saath ek naya triangle jo Russia ka ban raha hai, uski chintayein is baithak mein kitni hongi? Aur khas-taur par dekha ja raha hai ki NSG ke masle par jis tarah se Russia ke virodh ki bhi baatein aa rahi hain, us masle par kis tarah ki baat-cheet hone ki sambhavna hai?

Question: Like one of my colleague just spoke about very low trade between India and Russia at about 7.8 billion. Are we going to look it grievance this time to boost investments between the two countries and also any kind of announcements relating to diamond trade between India and Russia?

Question: Can you give us an update on ongoing negotiations on fifth generation fighter aircraft, what is the present status now?

Question: I am given to understand that France was not on the original travel schedule of Prime Minister, will you take them by surprise? And what are the specific issues that will be presented on the table when he meets the young President?

Official Spokesperson, Shri Gopal Baglay: We were taking questions on Russia but if you know the original schedule of Prime Minister, do let me know?

Question: What about the signing of agreement between the MCI on the acceptance of medical degrees from Russia. It’s been long pending and is there any deadline for it?

Jt. Secretary (Eurasia), Shri G V Srinivas: Thank you for the questions.

There have been some phrases which have been used by you, rather than actually joining there I would instead point out the fact that last year if you see, the kind of investment which had happened in the field of oil both ways has never been in the history of India, forget about only with Russia.

I don’t know why you qualify it the way you qualified, there would be reasons but I would point to the other facts that this kind of relationship is going at a very up speed. Yes, trade we all agree. I was the first person to confess that we could have done better but again in the light of the global trend etc. it may not necessarily be that bad trend either but yes there are challenges, there are efforts which are being made whether it is the popularization of the INSTC (International North South Transport Corridor) with the purpose of supporting the agriculture perishable goods because please remember the strength of this corridor is not necessarily only the 40 percent reduction in time or the money eventually but the fact that there are items which suddenly make tremendous sense over this corridor with no need for double fumigation which is otherwise necessary when the goods have to go through 45 days longer, circuitous route.

India and Eurasian Economic Union Free Trade Agreement, if you recall, last December we had that little progress when the Eurasian Economic Union had agreed to launch Free Trade Agreement with India, which will also soon begin. We are talking of Green Corridor which will also help and facilitate and encourage our businessmen as we make the entire transaction hassle free and fast. We have already decided, if you recall, the TIR, the cabinet has agreed to allow India to apply for TIR Convention membership. For those who do not know, let me point out that India is the only country which was out of this TIR convention from among the INSTC countries, other exception being Oman but we were the ones who were out and we were parallel struggling to put in place some customs harmonization standardized agreements with the member countries. All that will become actually automatic under TIR convention membership and there is a next step to that which is also being attempted, which is e-TIR, essentially meaning the Electronic submission of the documentation so that everything flows.

So you see that at the governmental level we are trying to push many areas so that this trade becomes very very good and as commensurate with the rest of the relationship which we have with Russia.

There will be many issues on the agenda as the Prime Minister and President Putin meet. All the issues which were flagged here, I am sure they will be coming there. Our position on the areas of interest, which you just pointed out, are well known. Our position also on that subject is also well articulated. They will definitely come up for discussion there.

When a foreign country designates its Ambassador etc. we leave that honor to the other country. We do not necessarily starve, yes we are desirous, it will happen, if not today, tomorrow but the relationship between two countries progresses irrespective of that fact because that all depend upon the comfort, the reason, the logistics, whatever they have.

As to how many agreements will be signed to push trade etc. as we go to St. Petersburg, yes a series of agreements are being put in place whether diamond figures in that, it is something which you will really get to know that day only but the issues of diamond are perhaps not necessarily relevant to the agreement, please remember that thing because that part has already been covered that Alrosa is willing to open its office in Mumbai, sightings of the diamond from Alrosa in Mumbai is happening, people are seeing.

It’s a different matter because of the taxation issues from our side and for the reasons which we all know. It has not really gained traction to have the trading in the raw diamonds, an area which is actually grabbing the attention of all the officials on this side as well as on the other side. But even with that out of the 2 billion trade of diamonds in raw which we have with Russia, 700 million actually happens directly. So that indicates that yes we can gain particularly small and medium enterprises will gain from this direct trading of the raw diamonds from India but we will have to wait. Things are progressing, the diamond bourse in Mumbai is already functioning so in times to come that will definitely happen also.

The defence projects which you referred to, whether that will see some progress etc. we all know that it is being analyzed. This project is extremely long and very ambitious, highly technological. We are extremely grateful to Russia that they really want to take us on board but this discussion is happening, what will be the moment etc. only the summit will tell you.

Medical degrees, I am glad that you asked this question but please remember that there is not equivalence in degrees per se which is an issue not only with Russia for that matter but with other countries also. What is the issue, it is actually that those students who study abroad and come back, can they really pass this examination which has been put by our Medical Council of India here?

Now that of course will depend, we need to internally also make sure that the doctors who give us medicines are actually well qualified so that examination is there but as far as recognition of medical degrees is concerned, I don’t think that is really relevant. There are some efforts today only, there was a big meeting taken by Secretary OIA when he interacted with all the Ambassadors here where most of Indian students study and there was a way forward which they are contemplating. I am sure that will also happen so that we not only study abroad but our degrees are recognized, we are able to practice, we are able to function not only in medical area but in other areas also.

Regarding Kudankulam, that again is as I said to you, you said 1, 2, 3, 4, let me tell you sir, 1 and 2 already done, up, running and kicking, even 3 and 4, concrete has been poured. Prime Minister Modi and President Putin actually video inaugurated that element, so that is of course on track, its happening.

Now on the question of 5 and 6, which also is a work in progress. I will leave actually not to steal the thunder. Let the summit deliverables indicate to you what really is achievable but let me say that let’s not assess what is happening or what is not happening. We are all working even as we speak, agreements are being assembled for delivery there and the very fact that the Prime Minister and President are meeting after 8 months interacting together with thousands of people who will assemble in St. Petersburg, it’s an indication that things are really looking up and they have only one way to go which is upwards.

Official Spokesperson, Shri Gopal Baglay: Thank you very much GV. I may just add here about Kudankulam 5 and 6, NSG, you would have seen some days ago the response which was issued from the Ministry of External Affairs, it’s in public domain. Those reports, which I think you are basing your query on and somebody asked about NSG also, those reports were completely incorrect and baseless. I had another adjective which I don’t want to repeat here.

Question: Last time the Prime Minister visited Germany there was a Make in India showcase at the Hanover trade fair, two years have since passed. How do you rate the showcasing and can you cite some specific examples where Germany has come forth for the Make in India program?

Question: I just wonder whether there is any deal on defence, any framework agreement on defence. And also we were thinking that there should be some marine deal between India and Germany, so what is the status of that?

Question: Spain ke saath baat-cheet mein aapne rail infrastructure project ka jikra kiya. Spain ki train Talgo ka trial Bharat mein hua tha aur us trial ke baad ye finalize nahi hua ki deal hoga bhi ki nahi jabki tamaam formalities Talgo ne yahan poori ki thi. To usko lekar kya koi baat-cheet hone hai jo agenda mein shaamil ho?

Question: Prime Minister is visiting countries like Russia, Germany and France. All three have very different positions when it comes to Crimea. Would India indicate a sort of reconsideration Crimea during the Prime Minister’s trip to Moscow?

Question: Three countries apart from Russia that the Prime Minister is visiting namely France, Germany and Spain are three of the largest EU countries in terms of the economy and are also currently ruled by governments that are very pro-EU in terms of their positions. Given that and the fact that many EU countries including Germany through its Ambassador recently indicated that they would like us to move forward on the Free Trade Agreement with the EU. How much we expect that to figure in our talks with these three countries? And are we also looking at any cooperation in terms of other aspects, including the OBOR. For example where some of these countries have shared concerns similarly to ours, so are we perhaps looking at alternative partnership for support of globalization which is different from the way Chinese are proceeding on it?

Jt. Secretary (West Europe), Shri Randhir Jaiswal: Thank you. Pehle main rail gaadi se shuruaat karunga. Talgo ka hamare desh mei kai mahine pahle experiments vagairah hui thi. Ye masla rail mantralay ke kheme mei hai. Halanki bahut badhiya technology hai, duniya bhar mein uski maanyata hai, lekin kuch maamlon mei technical issues hain, bahut saare technical issues hote hain to wahan par aakar cheezein thodi ruki hui hain baaki aane wale dinon mein isko hum aagey kaise le jaa sakte hain, ye hum dekhenge. Shayad Pradhan Mantri ki yatra ke dauran ye baat uthey wahan par. Wo ek private company hai, usko hum log jo hamari apni requirement hai, uske tahat hum dekhenge, kya wo de sakte hain, kya hum kar sakte hain.

Coming to the question on France, you know France is a strategic partner of India. A very important relationship and it is always good that when you are dealing with strategic partners that you meet with leaders as early as possible. The French elections happened recently and we are very happy that we have got an opportunity for the two leaders to meet and take the agenda forward.

On the question of Make in India, as I told you there are 1600 German companies here, there are 600 Indo-German joint ventures, they are part and parcel of Make in India. A lot has happened in the last two years since Hanover and now we have significant increase in investment figures. If you ask me those, I will not be in a position to give you right now but German metal stent company, their small and medium enterprises they have moved in India and more are likely to move in as we expand, as we open more opportunities for them.

On the question of defence deal with Germany. Defence is an important component of our relationship, we have regular meetings between to take forward defence cooperation and hopefully we can make it more attractive in the days to come for German companies to come and invest in India as part of Make in India program.

Submarine issue is something which is part of a larger rubric of issues that we discuss. So we will look at it as and when time comes to it.

On the question of bilateral investment treaty or to put it correctly broad-based trade and investment agreement with the European Union, yes, it is an important engagement that we have and all these three countries that Prime Minister would be visiting i.e. Germany, Spain and France, for them it’s important.

We have had 16 rounds of negotiations, we have called for another meeting chief negotiators soon and hopefully we can move forward. We reamin committed to take this bilateral Trade & Investment agreement with the European Union forward. They are one of our most important trade partners, one of our most important investment partners.

On the question of OBOR, India’s position is very well known. There are countries who have their position, that is how we look at it. Then the question on Crimea, I think I’ll leave it to my colleague to answer that particular question.

Jt. Secretary (Eurasia), Shri G V Srinivas: I don’t think there is any reason why the country would be visiting these four important countries to only change its position. Our position is well known to you. All issue of bilateral interests and regional interests will be coming there, what exactly will come, I am not pretty sure on that count.

I just want to add two aspects which had happened with Russia in the past since Goa summit. The leaders have mandated two special bodies to be created and which have met also, one was on Military Industrial Conference, the first meeting of which took place in the month of March when their Commerce Minister visited here along with our Defence Minister.

For those who do not know, this is the first time when both the military and industry from both sides came together to take forward this idea of collaboration beyond only buyer-seller in the area of military technical cooperation to the level that we are reaching. Make in India, one of the example is actually ahead of you is Kamov-226 and well before this, Brahmos. There are many others also which are being planned including in the area of spares.

The second this is about the technology transfer. Of course is one of the sources actually perhaps the only one which provides us high-technology and this has been happening but this has been institutionalized now and this body High-tech Conference, commission is being led on the Indian side by our Defence Minister and from the Russian side by Deputy Prime Minister, Mr. Rogozin. These two developments also indicate that a lot is being done to ensure that the relationship is taken to the larger basket of subjects.

Official Spokesperson, Shri Gopal Baglay: Thank you very much GV. Before we close this part I would just like to mention one fact, it may be of interest to many of you, as you know India has institutionalized regular summit mechanisms with three countries in the world. My good friend GV mentioned at the very beginning about Russia, which was institutionalized in 2000, we have it with Germany and we have it with Japan.

This visit of Prime Minister is very important as you can see the regularized summits will be taking place in two out of three countries with which we have institutionalized mechanism. I just want to leave you with the thought of the significance and importance of this forthcoming visits of Prime Minister.