Ministry of External Affairs Government of India

Official Spokesperson, Shri Raveesh Kumar: Namaskar, Good Afternoon friends. On behalf of Hon’ble External Affairs Minister of India, Ministers of State for External Affairs Dr. V K Singh, Shri M J Akbar, our Foreign Secretary Shri Vijay Gokhale and all senior officials of Ministry of External Affairs, I extend to you a very warm welcome to this much anticipated annual press conference by the External Affairs Minister.

Connected to the press conference there are two other segments. The first is the launch of a book, a coffee table book on the four years of the Ministry of External Affairs since May, 2014. The title of the publication in Hindi is "अभूतपूर्व संपर्क: असाधारण सफलताएँ” in Hindi and "Unprecedented Outreach: Unparalleled Outcome” in English.

The second section is the launch of a box of books called "भारत एक परिचय”, "Sharing knowledge with the world.” We then move on to the main section which is EAM’s press conference and after that we will take the questions. So moving on to the first segment. Now I request External Affairs Minister and other dignitaries who are present on stage to release the coffee table by holding the book in front of you and untying the ribbon.

The book published in Hindi and English is a journey and achievement of Ministry of External Affairs in the last 4 years. The soft copy of the book is available on MEA’s website and a hard copy will be sent to all of you in the next few days.

Next up is the launch of a box of books, भारत एक परिचय, Sharing knowledge with the world. A box which is a collection of 51 books including from 21 Indian official languages. These books are to be presented to educational institutions abroad in their libraries and will be used as reference material by students in those institutes.

Now we move on to the main part of the agenda which is External Affairs Minister’s press conference. Simultaneous interpretation is available in Hindi and English.

External Affairs Minister, Smt. Sushma Swaraj: Namaskar friends!

We meet every year in this auditorium for our annual press conference. This year’s press conference has also been held under the same series. Every year we present a year's report card, but this year we have given you the report card for the last 4 year’s work in one go. In this coffee table book, which we have just released, we have presented the report card for 4 completed years. Just now our spokesperson told you that we have kept its title " Unprecedented Outreach: Unparalleled Outcome"

It is my duty, that if we have given this title, then I must present the facts confirming it in front of you. If I present all the facts here, my introductory statement will be very long and there will be less time for the question-answer session. Therefore, I would want you to read the book in the next 2 to 3 days once you receive it as it is under-print. Today we only requested four copies for the release. So in that book you will find all the facts supported with the figures but I would like to tell you in brief, the reason why and how we have titled it.

The first name is " Unprecedented Outreach”, and the outreach word has three facets. Contacts with other countries of the world, contacts with overseas Indians settled abroad and contact with the countrymen living in India. As far as contact with other countries is concerned, we have two parts, one is the first time, and you will find that there are so many countries in the world where the visits have never happened at the Prime Minister, President or Vice President level. You will find details of all those countries, where the Prime Minister visited for the first time, the Vice President visited that country for the first time in this tenure and the President visited for the first time.

Second part is about the "long interval” where you will find that the Prime Minister, President and Vice President have visited those countries after the interval varying from 10 to 60 years. But now i would want to mention a plan which will make you understand truly why this word was chosen and that plan is ‘बृहद संपर्क योजना/(Literal English Translation)

The background story is, when I took over the responsibility, we had the HOM conference which is the annual meeting of the Ambassadors in few months and i came to know from many ambassadors that they have been posted in a country where till date there has not been a single ministerial level visit.

I was surprised that no one has visited till date, I asked, no one has visited in our tenure? to which they replied that your tenure has been just for 6 months, so far no one has ever visited. At that time itself, we took the resolution that we will overcome this shortcoming and during our tenure of this government, there are 193 members of the United Nations, in which one is India itself. So we will make it a point to cover all the other 192 countries with ministerial level visits and today I am very glad to inform you that only 4 years have passed, we still have 1 year left, but in those 4 years, we have covered 186 out of the 192 countries with ministerial level visits and the ministers have been designated for the remaining 6 countries, the name of the country which they will visit particularly has also been identified and for Iceland even the dates have been fixed. Thus soon we will accomplish the resolution. Now if 186 out of 192 have been covered, then I think it is appropriate to say this outreach is unprecedented.

The second part, I said was the NRIs. You know that no Prime Minister has ever associated with the Indian community by addressing them at this scale before this government came to power. But Shri Narendra Modi is the first Prime Minister who developed direct bonding with them by addressing millions of Indians from Madison Square, USA to the grounds of Janakpur.

Likewise, the Foreign Minister of this Government is the first Foreign Minister who has not only heard the sufferings of the sufferers through Twitter but also immediately redressed them. The first Minister of this government is General VK Singh, who even after retiring as Army Chief, led our rescue operation under burning sun straight from the field, led the evacuation of the Indians. This is an unprecedented outreach in itself and if I give you the information that we have safely evacuated more than 90,000 people from foreign countries and also want to present you the fact, that on the basis of the strength of friendship developed by our Prime minister with the rulers of other countries, we got released hundreds of people from the jails. Some have been released from the trap of gallows and some have been brought back after their huge penalties were forgiven.

Today the pride of the Indians settled abroad has also gone up. Today, Indian passports have become a security cover for them. Today any Indian sitting abroad or Indian travelling abroad, says that if I get stuck in any corner of the world then my government will evacuate me out. This trust is due to this unprecedented outreach.

Third part is our contact with our countrymen. So far, the contact of the countrymen with the Ministry of External Affairs was only through the passport service, that was the only service provided by the Ministry of External Affairs within the country. As far as the passport is concerned, I would like to give you a figure that when we took over the government, there were only 77 passport centers across the country. The state of Madhya Pradesh which I represent is a very big state, and there was only one office in Bhopal. So if the tribals of Sidh Mandal have to go, they must visit Bhopal, if you are coming from commercial centers like Indore, you will have to visit Bhopal. Himachal is such an inaccessible area, there was only one passport center in Shimla. If you are coming from Chamba, then come to Shimla and you will also be surprised to know that in all of the 8 states of the whole northeastern region, there was only one passport assistance center in Guwahati. If a person from Arunachal ,Manipur, Nagaland wants to contact the passport office, they have to go to Guwahati to get their passports. We decided that firstly all states of the Northeast region would be provided with separate passport service centers and we completed it by 2015.

After that we realised that only 77 passport centers will not be enough to cover the whole of India,so we made a plan with the Postal Department to open the POPSK and today I am happy to inform you that there were only 77 passport centers before 2014, and in these 4 years, we have opened 227 new passport assistance centers. 227. We have added 227 new Passport Service Kendras. Out of 227, 211 have been opened within POPSK. 227 that is almost 3 times, the exact three times is 231, we opened 227 and we have not kept the passport service as the sole means of contact with the countrymen. We have prepared new plans and taken new initiatives.

Till now, the Ministry of External Affairs is considered as an elite ministry, Ministry of Elites or the Elitist Ministry. A programme has been compiled for the foreign policy to reach Indian villages, which is named "SAMEEP”. For this particular initiative we have asked the officials of the Ministry of External Affairs, to go back to their roots, where they got their education from. They should visit their own school and talk to the students and tell them about foreign policies and do a question answer session.

You probably must be thinking that people working in well dressed suits must belong to a convent school and so they reach will only be limited to such schools.

No, Till date 6 programs have been completed and one program was organized in Delhi and that too in DAV Public School, not in a convent. The rest were organized in Jalandhar,Trichy,Sonipat,Port Blar, Andaman and Imphal. We have covered these areas and will keep covering more such areas. Now our HOM conference is going to be organized and we are asking everybody to once go to their school, during their visit, contact the students and reply to their questions. It is our endeavor so that the foreign policy reaches the villages and the common man.

In the same manner, foreign policy was limited to English only. We asked an important question that why have Indian languages ​​been untouched by this, so many different languages ​​are spoken in India; all languages ​​are rich; their literature is rich; why foreign policy is left behind. We made another plan, "Videsh Aaya Desh ke Dwar” (Foreign at our doors). We did not invite them rather we reached at their door and we started this program and whichever state the JS (XPP) will visit, he will be accompanied by a learned officer who speaks the language of the state and all question/answers, discussions will be conducted in the same language and replies too will be given in the same language. We have also initiated this program from Hyderabad and in we will cover all others states of India.

Promotion of Indian languages, which was never a mandate of the Ministry of External Affairs, was never a mandate. We made it our mandate. Just now the box which you saw, it contains 51 books. We have decided that 22 languages which ​​are listed in the Constitution of India,a book for every language will be present and also a book from its Sahitya Academy, which they say, a famous book. hence out of 51, 22 books will be in regional languages. 22 books will be in regional languages, which indicates the promotion of Indian languages, something; ​​which was never our Mandate. So, that is how big is our outreach, thus if I call it an unprecedented outreach, it won’t be unfair.

Its second section is extraordinary achievements. As far as the extraordinary achievements are concerned, if I start counting them. then the time of the entire press conference will be consumed hence i will tell you only few of the most important achievements. At first, on the economic front, diplomacy for development, this term was never in the diplomacy. We not only adopted this word but also included it into all the flagship programs run by the Prime Minister such as Clean India, Skill India, Digital India, Startup India, Smart City. We took up all the responsibilities on our shoulders and bought in the technology and the capital together in our country. And today I'm delighted to tell you that from May 2014 to February 2018, US $ 209.83 billion, which if I say in Hindi, then about 1400,000 crores have reached the country. Infact, more than 1400,000 crores. The exact figure is 1405861 crores rupees. In this booklet you will find information about the countries which will be bringing in their technology into our country. Did i not say that we are confirming everything? The countries which will come to India under Skill India programme ,and under Digital India, and Startup India, every such detail you will find in this booklet.

We did this for the first time and created 2 new divisions. Department of Economic Diplomacy and Department of State, and merged them both, so that all the fund which will come can directly come to the state. So we have a Joint Secretory who develops contact with the state and also look after economic diplomacy. This is a big achievement of foreign policy on the economic front.

The next big achievement is that we have 4 export control regime in the world. Before 2014, India never got the membership of any of the export control regime. But in only 4 years, we got the membership of 3 out of the 4 export control regime. First we became a member of MTCR, after that we became the member of the Wasenar arrangement and after that we became a member of the Australia Group.3 out of the 4 membership has been achieved in last 4 years. This is no ordinary achievement.

Likewise, the membership of SCO, it is a regional grouping where our 4 countries were from Central Asia, with whom we had our old cultural historical relations, which we wanted since long even though we were observers, but we got full membership in our this tenure only.

Apart from that, India has its agenda of bringing itself onto the world stage like International Yoga Day. Do you remember the time when the Prime Minister went to the United Nations? He became the Prime Minister in May 2014 and addressed the United Nations General Assembly in September 2014, where he expressed the desire that 21 June which is the biggest day of the earth should be declared as International Yoga Day. The Ministry of External Affairs presented a proposal in the United Nations to grant this wish and I am very happy to inform you that 177 countries became its co-proposers.

And this proposal was passed uncontested within 75 days. This is the United Nations record that in 75 days, a given proposal was passed uncontested. And today you see that Yoga has become one of the biggest soft powers of India, and has spread throughout the whole world and this work to bring an agenda of India on the global stage was executed by our Prime Minister.

Secondly, the International Solar Alliance i.e. ISA. In order to counter climate change, the Prime Minister understands that the solar energy should be used in a big way, so for us too, he has assigned a very big target for solar energy. In Paris, when COP 21 was convened, he took this initiative along with the then President of France, Hollande. In countries where the sun shines for 8 to 9 out of 12 months, it not only gives out light but heat too, so why should the solar energy not be used and the International Solar Alliance, which is there. Just a few days ago, you saw that its founding conference with its Founder Members, was also held in India. I am happy to inform you that 64 countries have become its members and 34 countries have ratified it.

This is a huge global agenda which has been placed in front of people by India, with France's initiative. Apart from this, we have also done the work of including Yoga and Kumbh Mela as the Intangible Heritage of India under UNESCO.

Like I said that you can read more about the achievements in the booklet, if I speak more, then your time will be wasted but I have presented very broad things in front of you. I think the outreach details that have been told are incredible contacts and those achievements that I have counted here, reinforce this title "Unprecedented Outreach: Unparalleled Outcome. In the end, I would like to say only that India's prestige has increased so much in this short span 4 years that today when India speaks, the whole world listens.

Thank you.

Now I will answer your questions.

Official Spokesperson, Shri Raveesh Kumar: Thank you Ma’am. Now the floor will be open for questions but before that I will request you to observe the following. Number one, please identify yourself. We have a multi-production camera team so when you speak you will be on camera as well. Number two, to give a fair chance for all of you to speak please restrict yourself to one question per person, and no linked question and I would also like to share with you today that there is no system of advance booking of questions. Some of you try to send me question in advance since yesterday, so it depends upon you catching my attention and once I have pointed out to you then you can ask your question. Third and very important that once we start a topic then we will cover that topic which means that the first question on a certain topic could be followed by a maximum of four questions on the same topic. If it is US then one lead question plus four cross questions and then the topic is closed so that we can move on and cover as many topics as possible. So now the floor is open to questions.

Question from Republic TV: Over the last few months there have been indications from Pakistan for dialogue. Pakistan Army Chief also said some time ago, that there should be a Comprehensive Dialogue. There are elections in Pakistan on 25th July, do you think that we can continue dialogue with Pakistan after the elections in Pakistan. Can there be official, comprehensively dialogue? Can talks restart after that, are we willing to give a chance to Pakistan following that?

Question from NewsX: My question is that there have been a lot of indications from Pakistan and India side as well including the Defence Minister Mrs. Nirmala Seetharaman a few days ago had indicated that we are open for talks if Pakistan wants to. Also as we speak the Pakistani PMSA (Pakistan Maritime Security Agency) Chief has just arrived for a bilateral with the Indian Coastguard Chief. Is there an indication that we are open for talks with Pakistan, even if the terrorism aspect is not solved and the IB in LOC remains volatile? This is slightly different from what our stand has been and the indication that we are getting in last few days is slightly different.

Question: With the deterioration of the relations with Pakistan and also to some extent Maldives, what kind of future do you see for SAARC, minus Pakistan?

Question from India Today: This is regarding the Gilgit Baltistan order 2018 by Pakistan that was passed. What do you make of the order because in many ways it is trying to usurp land that is part of Kashmir. India has already lodged a protest but anything more than that which India would be willing to do?

Question from News Nation: You cited the achievements of last 4 years, in the context of Pakistan it seems like the Indian government has made every effort, the Prime Minister himself went, so that the relations between India and Pakistan can improve and the relationship between both the countries can come on track. But in 4 years do you feel that all our efforts have failed? It was seen yesterday that Pakistan declared Baltistan and the rest of our province, as their fifth state. In a way, they showed that they do not want any improvement in relations. Considering this does our Government has any approach towards it?

External Affairs Minister, Smt. Sushma Swaraj: Friends, out of the five questions that have come up three are almost alike, there are minor differences. In the first question, I was asked directly whether we are ready for talks and will we be able to continue talks after the elections. In the second question, it has been added, whether we would continue talks despite of terrorism. It was said in the third question because the first person said that whether there is a shift in our policy, in the third it was said that we have taken a stand, that we would not talk if terrorism continues, then what do we say about it. Another question has been asked, will we talk about SAARC minus Pakistan?

So first let me tell you that with "we are ready for talks", we were never in a position when we said that we are not ready for talks but there is a caveat. Terror and talks cannot go together.

This is our position and there is no change in this position. We are ready for talks, even before the election. The election has nothing to do with it. We are ready for talks even before the elections, provided Pakistan is ready to discard terrorism and come for talks across the table. And this thing I am not saying today, I told these things while giving speech at the United nations, when Nawaz Saab proposed 4 formulas, to which I said that we do not need 4 formulas,you can propose one formula, leave terrorism and come for dialogue. So the first thing is that it does not have any relation with the election.

Secondly, whether Nirmala ji spoke, no matter who else spoke, this caveat was never removed. Terror and talks cannot go together. Because, the voice of the dialogue is not appealing, when people are being killed on the border. Border is hot, every day there is firing on the border, infiltration of terrorists take place across the border, attacking the Pathankot airbase, when all of this is happening the talks cannot take place.

As far as the Comprehensive Bilateral Dialogue is concerned, I only travelled to Islamabad to attend the Heart of Asia conference and initiated the Comprehensive Bilateral Dialogue. But a few days after that the Pathankot airbase was attacked. Yes, whatever else you said, the talk on Coast Guard, the mechanism is there, their talks continue. Coastguards also have talks, there are talks between BSF and Pak- ranger. DGMO also talks and NSA also talks, because after giving much thought we have separated NSA's dialogue mechanism from the Comprehensive Bilateral Dialogue. Why we did this because we say that terror and talks cannot go together but talks on terror should be held. So, in the NSA's mechanism they talk on terror therefore the dialogue continues.

Now the Neemrana dialogue happened, the track-2 dialogues also keeps going, because when the formal talks are over, or gets discontinued, then these mechanisms continue. But if you are talking of the Comprehensive Bilateral Dialogue, then until Pakistan leaves terrorism,be it before the election or after the election, there will be no talks.

As far as Gilgit, Baltistan is concerned, the day they said they will designate it as fifth state, on the same day we summoned the High Commissioner of Pakistan, and submitted our protest before them. Today we have received their response, but I also want to comment on the reply, they want to teach us the history and law and the country which itself twists the country’s history, the country which does not believe in law and order, the country which spreads terrorism must not teach us. After reading their reply, I just felt, look, who's talking SAARC means all countries.

A grouping is not a grouping, if any of the country leaves it.

Question from Wion: My question is on the ongoing developments in North Korea, the expected talks. What has India to say on that and also General V K Singh visited North Korea, what was the reason, I mean are we upping the relationship with North Korean regime?

Question: I would like to know whether Indian government wants some kind of mediating role between United States and North Korea for their peace agreement or some denuclearization of Korean peninsula.

Question from News Mobile: India and the US have a very good relationship. North Korea, we have been assisting them in various ways and India is committed to Asian stability. So where do you see India’s role coming into play here, do you see us as a stabilizer between US and North Korea because obviously both of them have said that they are keen to do and move ahead on the summit. Obviously there are certain countries which seem to have come on the way, so where do you see India’s role because we have facilitated a lot of dialogues such and obviously this will work in promoting global peace?

External Affairs Minister, Smt. Sushma Swaraj: See, these 3 questions have come up, they are almost similar, so I answer them all together. As far as General VK Singh's visit is concerned, there is a background. Right now I visited to Baku to attend NAM Ministerial Meeting, Azerbaijan, the Foreign Minister of the DPRK there requested me for a bilateral and later I met him. So there they told me that our JCM is also pending over a year, FOC has not been held, so I would like that if you cannot visit, then at least send your MoS but this visit must be organized. So this trip came out of it and when I came back, I told General VK Singh that you must visit DPRK.

As far as America is concerned, if some of you were present that day, you will remember that when Secretary Kerry came here and we both were making the press statements, the question came that the US is asking to close down the embassies from there. India did not close down its embassy, then I told in front of him that we want that few such Embassies must remain there, so that tomorrow if the US had to initiate the dialogue then their friend country’s embassy should be present So we did not even close down our Embassy at that time, we had an embassy at that time also and today also our embassy is there. As far as the mediator is concerned, we are not doing any mediation in this matter. North Korea and South Korea first talked to each other and afterwards came the issue of talks with the US. After that, the US felt that China could play a role in it, then it should play. No one has asked us to play a role, nor are we playing a role in it, but due to our bilateral relations, General VK Singh visited DPRK.

Question from Hindustan Samachar News Agency: My question is on the aspect of your economic diplomacy. You have just said that you have created a new division and the component of economic issues in the bilaterals and multilaterals which have taken place in the last 4 years has increased and you have succeeded also in that.

Can you tell me what is your roadmap about it and what goals have you set, down the line five years and on?

Question from Global Governance Group: Just now you talked about economic diplomacy, you told that the investment of 14 lakh crores has come, is it in the last 4 years, we would like to know. Which are the top 5 countries who have invested in India? Apart from this, there are few reports that wherever the NRI are working for the flagship program of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, we have many reports that do not get much from the related Embassy and it is related to development of Hindi also under the Prime Minister's flagship programs. In 2007 a resolution was passed in the United Nations that Hindi will become the official language of the United Nations. What happened to that?

Question from New York Times: I wanted to ask you, your efforts to increase your economic diplomacy going forward, is this in relation to China’s a very aggressive economic diplomacy all throughout the region. It seems like India is just being boxed in its own backyard of South Asia due to large ambitious economic projects that China is funding whether it is Gwadar port or Hamentota port is Sri Lanka. So is this in response to China and is that one of your main threats that you see going forward this year or next?

External Affairs Minister, Smt. Sushma Swaraj: Three questions have come up on economic diplomacy. The first question, which was the operative part, was to ask what was our roadmap for the future, let me tell you that the roadmap is decided by the concerned Ministry, MEA does not do it and they tell us their roadmap because MEA is a facilitating ministry, We are not the administrative ministry, we are not their administrative ministry.

We mobilize facilities for them, then the administrative ministries decide their roadmap, and we facilitate them. So they will decide the road map and they have done, everybody is doing a press conference and they will tell their own road maps.

The first part of the next question was about the FDI figures I gave, are these of last 4 years and what's from the past? So let me tell you that these figures are from May 2014 to February 2018 and it is 43% more than the last 4 years. It is a 43% increase i.e., for the last 4 years from 2010 to 2014 and from May 2014 to February 2018 which constitute 4 years and if we compare them then there is an increase of 43%.

The second thing is that the CG does not help in their flagship programs is completely baseless and I strongly reject this.

As far as Hindi is concerned, Hindi is not in the flagship program, but if this question has been raised then I am telling that there is a process for becoming a recognized language in the United Nations, but the importance of Hindi in the United Nations should be increased and lot of work is being done by the ministry of external affairs and the disclosures will be made in the World Hindi Conference to be held next in Mauritius. Thank you.

Question From The Tribune: In terms of your perceived proximity with the United States, is there a deliberate attempt in may be trying to reset that session with informal summits that we have seen with Russia and China and also India faces a lot of secondary sanctions heat, whether be it on dealing with Iran or on Russia, what exactly is your assessment of the situation at this moment?

Question: There are reports that about 60 thousand spouses of H1B visa holders will go jobless in United States, those who are in H4 visa. Has this matter been taken up with the trump administration?

Question: Last year, at the American initiative, a meeting of four countries of the Indo-Pacific Group took place in Manila, in which India also participated, official level discussion was held. This group of four countries is emerging as a coalition, how do you see its future and what can be the role of India in this alliance?

Question: Many Indian companies are doing business with Iran but now they face prospects of tough sanctions, so how does India intend to cope with that and is there any proposal to give license to Iranian banks to set shops in India?

Question: Recently US has pulled out of Iran Nuclear deal and announced sanctions. Now what will be India’s relations in the backdrop towards Iran particularly in the backdrop of crude oil prices touching sky high and also hitting domestic market as far as diesel and petrol prices are concerned?

External Affairs Minister, Smt. Sushma Swaraj: In all of these questions, few things are common, let me first answer them, and this will cover the reply to the previous question which our Foreign Correspondent asked pertaining to the economic diplomacy.

We do not make our foreign policy either considering attachment towards a country or under the pressure of any country and it is answer to your question, nor do we make it as a reaction to a country, that China is doing an economic diplomacy, is putting more money, so we are doing economic development, No. This is not a Reactionary policy, we do not make it as a reaction nor do we make it under pressure nor do we make due to any attachment.

Now I will come to some specific questions. First let’s take Iran. Just 2 hours after the end of your press conference, I have a dialogue with the Iranian Foreign Minister, today he is coming here and I shall meet him at 6:30. We are saying it very clearly that we recognize UN sanctions and not any country specific sanctions. Last time even when the United States imposed sanctions on Iran, our business continued with them. As far as the bank is concerned, the proposal to set up any of their banks has not yet come to us.

Now I will come to the subject of H1 B Visa. You talked about the H4 visa, which is Spouse's VISA, I will first tell you that this spouse visa was taken from America during our own tenure only. When Prime Minister Modi met President Obama in 2015, then he had said that India could make another contribution to the US economy. If you give Visas to our Professionals' Spouses, they are also equally competent and they will be able to uplift your economy.

And accepting this, President Obama gave the H4 visa, which started from 2015. It is absolutely right that President Trump is reviewing it, reports of its revocation are also coming, but I want to tell you that not only because it came during our tenure but because the interests of Indians are related to it and the interest of Indian Spouses are also attached and this is not only for H4 visa, I am talking about H1B visas also. We are trying to save these visas from all three directions. What are those three directions? We are talking to the White House, we are talking to the State Administration, we are talking to the Congressman, we are talking to the senator. And you may have seen that its impact also came, all together the 130 members of Parliament of both the houses combined, Congress and the Senate, have written a letter the to President Trump, for not revoking the H4 visa as it will be a shock to the US economy.

This is the outcome of our efforts, that we are trying to save the H4 and H1B visa using all possible means, but America is a sovereign country, ultimate decision is to be taken by them, how successful we will be, no matter how much, it is in the womb of the future but from this forum, I want to assure the country that we will not leave any stone unturned in our endeavor.

Question from Times Now: Prime Minister has just met Chinese President. There are still issues on the border. Can you tell us where things stand on Doklam and we are hearing about trouble in Mansarovar, could you just brief us on where things are in Doklam and in Mansarovar?

Question from CNN News18: Last month when Prime Minister met with Xi Jinping both leaders agreed to issue strategic guidance to their militaries to build trust so as to avoid Doklam like situations. Can you tell us what this in practical terms, what is this strategic guidance entails? And number two, would this also mean some kind of joint patrolling of disputed sites along the line of Actual Control so as to avoid misunderstandings?

Question: During Atal Ji's government, George Fernandes had said that China is the enemy number one. Now it is Modi's government, so now Pakistan is the enemy number one or China?

Question From PTI: China has been actually keeping us busy in the last four years and in fact there have been efforts by both sides to leave behind the Doklam episode and we are trying to again get close. So in this context also visited China, PM had an informal meeting with Chinese President, Defence Minister had visited China recently, FS, NSA they had visited China. So is there any expectation from India that in fact China will drop its strident opposition for India to become NSG member as well as India’s efforts to declare Masood Azhar as a global terrorist by United Nations. Do you expect China will change their position and agree to what India has been pushing for?

Question from Hong Kong Phoenix TV: We see Wuhan summit as a new paradigm for next 10 to 15 years of India China relations. So what is the new paradigm and what is the major shift or changes that we can see different from the past three-four years?

External Affairs Minister, Smt. Sushma Swaraj: In these five questions, two things are common; the rest are different. Let's first answer the common things. In the Informal Summit, the meeting of President and Prime Minister Modi and Dokalam, this is common, and for the rest I will answer individually.

As far as the question of the Informal Summit is concerned, our last questioner has rightly said that this is a new dialogue mechanism that has not been adopted in the world till date and has been adopted for the first time. Sometime people used to stopover in Europe, they used to talk informally, but by extending invitations, not for formal but for informal talks, it has never happened before. It happened with China for the first time, again with Russia, or for a short time with Germany also, because they had told PM in the Commonwealth that while travelling back to India he should make a stopover in Germany, so that he was also one of his informal meetings.

We were to set the rules for these three meetings of the Informal Summit, the rules of the rest of the dialogue mechanisms were set, we had to set up rules for them and when for the first time I met with foreign minister Wang Yi, then it was conveyed on my behalf that It is better that we not bind our leaders to the listed agenda so that they can discuss freely and China agreed to it because they also did not want the bilateral controversial issues to be raised in this informal summit.

So first of all think that this summit was not organized to solve the issues then what was the purpose? It was about three objectives. The first objective was to increase the ease of relationships, the second objective was to increase mutual understanding on global issues and the third objective was to increase mutual trust and I can say that after the talks were over, we did justice to all the three objectives.

China also believes in it and we also believe in it and that is why we call it a very successful summit. Today, the best thing is that President Xi said that whenever you feel that something is unfavorable to you, pick up the phone and talk to me directly and Prime Minister Modi also said that if you want to know my opinion on any global issue, just pick up the phone and talk to me directly. So this summit has established the smoothness of relationships.

You said Dokalam and Dokalam was raised two or three times. We have repeatedly said this about Dokalam and today I want to repeat again, Status quo remains on the Dokalam's face off site, there has not been any change in the position. You said about Mansarovar. A tweet came to me this morning in which one of the pilgrims who went there said that they were not allowed to take bath in Mansarovar lake. Immediately, I instructed the concerned JS to get in to touch and after contacting I was told by them that this is not the situation. Every time a place is fixed, for bath, you cannot take bath in the entire lake anywhere you want, it was never allowed before. There is a fixed place where bathing is allowed. It is still in the fixed place and there is permission to take bath . There is no obstacle in it. We also responded to those people who spoke on the phone. So this is the status of Mansarovar and Dokalam.

After that you talked about the Strategic Guidelines, then the Strategic Guidelines will be provided by both the countries. It has not been specialized. It has not been elaborated. The strategic guidelines will mean that many times the army on either side crosses the border themselves due to the lack of decision on LAC, understand a bit, do not let anyone raise an issue between the two countries, so that such an issue later becomes a dispute between the two countries. The strategic guideline has become an understanding. What are the guidelines to be given to the army, is left on to the leaders, so nothing has been decided separately.

Question from ABP News: Are you in a position to provide update on the status of 6 Indians in Afghanistan and how close we are to their release and have you talked to their families, because the families have complained that that they have not been contacted by the central government. And there are many demonstrations held in Giridih and in Ranchi too, are you in a position to tell whether you have contacted them?

Question: In Afghanistan we are developing a lot of infrastructure, there have been talks of India and China coming together, can you elaborate, have we focused or have we come out of a project?

Question: China proposed a project in Afghanistan with India but when Indian Prime Minister Modi met with Vladimir Putin he was the one who proposed a project in Afghanistan. What’s in it for India given the fact that both these countries share close ties with Pakistan?

External Affairs Minister, Smt. Sushma Swaraj: Two questions are identical, two other two questions are identical. First both questions are about civil engineers and the other two questions are about the projects. I will answer one by one.

First of all, let me tell you regarding the question about the engineers, first of all, let me tell you that on the day this incident took place, I spoke to the Foreign Minister of Afghanistan, he had returned from Dhaka after attending the meeting of the OIC and as soon as he came to know that I called him, after collecting the complete information, he called me and then fully convinced me that these people are not just your people, but they have come here to build our country, so will see that they are not harmed in any way and I assure you that we will save them and bring them back.

This they assured me that day. After that, when five-six days passed and no news was received, I wrote a letter again and said that I accept your assurance but I have been compelled to write the letter because nothing concrete has been done so far. Then I wrote letter to them. After that our Ambassador went to meet President Ghani himself, and he also told him the same, President Ghani said that it is more of our responsibility than yours. They are definitely your citizen but they were working for us and we are fully committed to them and we will find them out.

What you talked about the family, I talk to the owner of the company everyday. I did not talk individually to the 6 families, but I have talked to Harsh Goenka, who is their employer and I am continuously in touch with him. Whenever I talk to the Foreign Minister, I also give the updates and whatever update is possible that I provide.

Everything else that you talked about, it was nice that you put a caveat, 'If you can tell' you know that confidentiality gives great success in these operations. If their privacy breaches, then there is a question mark on success. So I would like you to not force me to tell you how the operation is going on, what is being done, but I can certainly say that I am also in contact with the owner of the company and I am also in touch with Afghanistan's authority.

As far as the projects are concerned, President Xi in China proposed this offer before Prime Minister Modi for joint execution of the projects by China and Prime Minister Modi has accepted it because we are already working on the Capacity Building in Afghanistan. We built the Parliament House there. We built Salma Dam, which we later named it Afghan India Friendship Dam. And let me also tell you that when I had spoken to the Foreign Minister of Afghanistan last time, we also identified 116 small development projects which would be executed in their 31 provinces.

Small projects directly benefit people and if China and India work together in Afghanistan then the work will be 2 times, 3 times. If anybody assists or offers to work in the Capacity Building, we accept it but you say that both the countries support Pakistan then there are many countries who talk to Pakistan and talk to us too.

Because every sovereign country is free to make its independent policy. They have good relations with us, therefore they must not maintain good relations with Pakistan or if they have good relations with Pakistan, then they should not have good relations with us, it is not like that. Saudi Arabia has a very good relationship with Pakistan and has developed close relationship with us. UAE has a very good relationship with Pakistan, we too have established very good relationship with them. Turkey's President came here despite Turkey's good relations with Pakistan. So independent policies are formed, it never happens with a country that if they have good relationship with them, then we will stop talking to each other, this never happens in diplomacy.

Question from Dainik Bhaskar: On the completion of your four-year government, the Congress blamed you with forty betrayals and four betrayals were linked to your ministry. The first is that you flip-flopped on Pakistan's policy and in a manner played with the country. Secondly, we had a 70-year-old time-tested friendship with Russia but we forced him to start selling arms to Pakistan. Third, with China, you let them sit over in Dokalam and then showed weakness against them, fourth, that the external affairs ministry has shifted to the PMO. You just have twitter handle, what do you have to say?

Question: This question is about the United Nations. Representatives from all over the world keep on visiting them on important matters, do you feel that this organization was built with an objective and has it fulfilled that purpose, and if it is needed to strengthen it, then what is India’s initiative?

External Affairs Minister, Smt. Sushma Swaraj: You have asked me questions as a Congress spokesperson, but I will reply all the four, but in a way I am thankful to you that you gave me a platform to reply to them, I am thankful to you. And because Ravish Ji has kept the limit of four in the supplementary, then I would answer the four of them first.

The first question you said is that our policy on Pakistan is a flip-flop. Some people have just said before you that Pakistan wants to talk, why Pakistan wants to talk? Because it’s due to the success of India's foreign policy that Pakistan has been isolated in the international world.

Today, the entire international community is applying pressure on them, so it is India's success in the international arena. It is very big that today the entire international community is pressurizing Pakistan to leave terrorism. So Congress must look at that, I do not see any flip flop in this.

As far as the second question is concerned, you mentioned about Russia, I would like to tell them to see only the visuals of the informal summit held at Sochi. How far we have drifted from Russia, for the informal summit, if President Putin invites Prime Minister Modi, despite shortage of time, he accepted the invitation and travels in the morning and returns back in the evening. Even after this, to say that we have distanced them, it is falsification of the truth, to close one’s eyes against truth.

Third, what you mentioned was Dokalam, Dokalam has become their obsession. Even after repeatedly saying 10 times and today again, after saying that there is no face-off of Dokalam’s stand-off site and there is no change in status quo on the face off site. And after this, it was appreciated by the entire international world, that in spite of the Dokolam’s standoff where people thought that it cannot be resolved without a war,India succeeded in explaining them through diplomacy and through dialogue, we succeeded in explaining them through diplomacy and dialogue.

The next question you raised is on the effectiveness of the United Nations, you have questioned on effectiveness and I completely agree with you and I believe that the United Nations Special Security Council is completely ineffective and that's why we very strongly speak about the UN reforms. Recently, when the Prime Minister of the Netherlands came here, he said that we should jointly speak about UN reforms, must speak one after another. So every time I raise this topic in the UN speech and we fully agree that the UN reforms are the need of the day, if you need to start UN reforms then you must start with the United Nations Security Council.

Question from the Financial Express: I want to know what the government is doing in the Latin American region especially with the sanctions being imposed by the US on Venezuela. So how is the government planning to make the payments and providing them with pharmaceutical help, that is what they want the most.

Question from Reuters: I would like to know because of the sanction on Venezuela by US administration, is there a change in the economic policy of India, are we contemplating trading with them in rupee terms or in their own crypto currency which they have launched for the oil sales? Thank you.

External Affairs Minister, Smt. Sushma Swaraj: As far as the Latin American countries are concerned, first of all, let me tell you that during our tenure of last 4 years, the way we had engagement with the Latin American countries, it has never happened before. We have visited 23 countries and both of them who are sitting on my right side, both my colleagues, friendly colleagues, are almost at the airports, because of poor connectivity with LAC countries.

Such is the level of engagement that has happened with the Latin American countries and the coffee table book which we have compiled has different sections. I would certainly like to ask the journalists who have asked the question on Latin American Countries, to see the level of engagement we had. After that you talked about trading and sanctions, I have already said that we believe in UN sanctions, do not recognize country specific sanction.

You asked whether we will trade in Rupees or in cryptocurrency. The crypto currency has been disallowed by the RBI so India will not trade in cryptocurrency, and formulation of mechanism will be known at the later stage. With whom we can trade, but the cryptocurrency has been disallowed by the RBI, hence there will not be any trade in cryptocurrency.

Question from India TV: As of now the way you have been giving lot of help to the people through Twitter and in this context you have given a very emotional response. My question is linked to the fact that after your big prompt efforts yesterday, 15 Indians were trapped on the Mount Everest in Nepal and they were all rescued. Just I want to know this, to whom you will give credit to and how all of it became possible?

External Affairs Minister, Smt. Sushma Swaraj: It is possible because I myself supervise it. I believe that there is no substitute to supervision and it is possible because my ambassadors work round the clock, 24X7, hence whatever tweet comes to me, they are also endorsed to the embassy. And the Ambassadors themselves have become so sensitized that they act immediately. But you must have seen that whenever tweet comes, I call the Ambassadors by name, when I got the tweet, I asked Manjeev, help them. I tweet every ambassador by name and I can say that neither I sleep nor I allow my ambassadors to sleep.

Question from Lokmat Samachar: Ma’am you told about achievements in all the areas. When you came to the Ministry of External Affairs, you had told that people will be able to apply for a passport through the mobile but four years have elapsed and nothing can be ascertained.

External Affairs Minister, Smt. Sushma Swaraj: The online process has started. We have developed a mobile App and in that mobile App we have included the police verification but we talked about only putting the online application on the mobile. The online application itself is giving immense convenience to the people.

Question: My question relates to Sheikh Hasina’s recent visit to West Bengal. In that visit the Prime Minister and West Bengal Chief Minister met separately with the Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina. You must have some feedback whether there is some positive movement or we can say some ice has been broken on unresolved issues particularly Teesta water sharing agreement.

Question from ANI: Recently there was a big statement about Rohingya that Rohingya must go back to their origin. What is India's stand and what it thinks on this, your opinion?

Question: Regarding the ongoing Rohingya crisis Bangladesh has, not alleged directly but they wanted to say that India sided with Myanmar on the entire issue. What you want to say on this allegation, if I may say so?

Question: You have been to Myanmar and met with the leaders there, what is happening with the Indian aid that has been sent there and do you think Myanmar is sincerely wanting to take back the Rohingyas?

Question: Is Teesta a sore point because in your presence Prime Minister Narendra Modi has assured Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina that during his tenor Teesta would be solved at Hyderabad House. Four years have gone by and nothing has happened so far. Is it one of the minor failures on the part of the Foreign Ministry?

External Affairs Minister, Smt. Sushma Swaraj: Out of these 5 questions, 2 are related to Teesta and 3 related to Rohingya. As far as Teesta is concerned, the first question about Teesta was that was there any talk with Sheikh Hasina during her recent visit. It is fine that Mamata Banerjee met her separately and the Prime Minister met separately. And there is another question related to it.

The Teesta's resolution cannot take place between two central governments alone i.e. that cannot happen between the Government of Bangladesh and the Central Government of India. A big stakeholder is the the West Bengal Government, so we talk about talking to Mamta ji again and again, they had given an alternative provision when Sheikh Hasina visited last. Leave the Teesta, there are three more rivers, take the water of these three rivers, so if you get the equivalent quantity of water from these rivers, what was supposed to go from Teesta, the Teesta will be saved but you will get water.

A feasibility study is going on in which representatives of West Bengal are there along with representatives of our water resources and they are doing the study together. The report is yet to come, but as far as Teesta is concerned, we have one more year and you have given us the failure card now itself. Complete one year is left. Today is 28th May, 2 days back only we completed 4 years, and you have called it a failure.

Wait for some more time, we are trying, but like I said that there is also a third stakeholder, even if you make any decision onboard, then how will you implement it? Water has to go through West Bengal, and anyway we have maintained this policy till date that every stakeholder must be taken on-board for entering into an agreement, then it becomes easier to implement the agreement.

As far as Bangladesh and Rohingya are concerned, the first thing Bangladesh has never put an allegation that India-sided with Myanmar. Secondly, Bangladesh's Foreign Minister came to meet me here and I visited Myanmar to meet Aung San Suu Kyi, just a few days ago. I was very happy to learn that both Bangladesh and Myanmar have concluded an agreement and the time frame has been fixed in that agreement that within 2 years this repatriation work will be completed. It was decided that joint working group will meet. The Joint Working Group also held two meetings, in January in Myanmar, and in May in Bangladesh, now the process of national verification has been agreed upon and the form which is to be filled up has also been agreed upon. It is decided that the entire family will be identified as a unit.

And as you said that Myanmar has refused to take them back is absolutely wrong. Suu Kyi gave me a list and subsequently the same came in public domain also. A list of 1222 people have been verified by Myanmar and handed over to Bangladesh, stating that we have verified and now you can send them back. This is first step of big achievement and you may call it as baby step, considering that, that after the agreement Myanmar has handed over list of 1222 people after due verification to Bangladesh stating that we are ready to take them back. I feel that if both the countries sincerely implement this agreement then a permanent solution will definitely come out.

Question from The Pioneer: My question is, on Vijay Mallya, How far the Government of India has reached in its efforts? Secondly, he has pleaded that the condition of the Indian prisons is very bad, therefore he cannot return back, so would you like to make some comment about this?

External Affairs Minister, Smt. Sushma Swaraj: As far as Vijay Mallya's extradition is concerned, we have sent the Extraction Request there. The lawsuit is going on in the court, which was put on behalf of the State Bank Consortium, which comprised 12 Indian banks, they have won the lawsuit and it has been told that they can initiate the recovery, all the banks initiated the recover from him.

As far as sending back to India is concerned, their court is saying this thing which you said at the end that we will come to inspect our prisons, what is the condition of your prisons. So, I would like to tell you that at the time of the Commonwealth Summit, when the Prime Minister met with British Prime Minister Theresa, he had told them that when our fugitives come here it takes a lot of time to send them back to India and your court has raised this in Mallya’s case, that they will come to inspect the jails, then I want to tell you that these are the same jails where you have put Mahatma Gandhi, Pandit Nehru and other big leaders of India, then raising the question about those prisons today is not right for your court.

They are saying that live streaming is going on the TV, then we have to take care of their time also, we had kept an hour, but it is already one and a half. I do not have any problem, I am sitting, you can continue to ask the questions, I have to answer the Congress also that I am aware of the foreign policy, I am not only on Twitter. Today their illusion might have vanished. If I do not know foreign policy, then how can I answer your questions, perhaps even today the illusion will disappear, even then they will not agree.

Question from Bloomberg: This is just a clarification to the earlier questions about Venezuela and Iranian oil. You said that India doesn’t recognize country specific sanctions and prefers UN sanctions, just a very clear answer whether India would continue buying Iranian and Venezuelan oil?

Official Spokesperson, Shri Raveesh Kumar: That question has been answered and I think we need to move on.

External Affairs Minister, Smt. Sushma Swaraj: I have answered to RLD, in relation to Iran and also in connection with Venezuela, so now it has no meaning what will you do or what you will not. We have already said that we recognize UN sanction and not country specific suction.

Question from In Dinon: Our question to you, your ministers travelled to Syria and Yemen evacuated a lot of people to India. Now there are some people left there, what steps we have taken under the peace making policy of India for Syria.

External Affairs Minister, Smt. Sushma Swaraj: You said that some people were left, where and which people have been left, I could not follow your question.

Question Contd।: My question is that our people who were trapped in Syrian and Yemen were evacuated by our minister. Now whether there is anybody left or not, it is not known. What is the position, but they have come.

External Affairs Minister, Smt. Sushma Swaraj: First of all, let me tell you not to confuse yourself between Syria and Yemen, there was no evacuation from Syria, only the evacuation took place from Yemen. And from Yemen, 4872 Indians and 1947 foreigners were evacuated by us, meaning nearly five thousand Indians and nearly two thousand foreigners. And after that nobody was left out but some people had gone back. So for them, afterwards we issued this advisory and banned. So now we have imposed ban on travel because few nurses were returning back, so the same people who have been evacuated are going back under same conditions and then again requesting for evacuation, considering all this we imposed ban on Yemen. And no evacuation has been done from Syria.

Question from Business World: This is regarding Maldives. We have seen lot of repulse in relations with Maldives. First Maldives asks us to take back the helicopter that we gifted to them and second we also agreed to send our vessel to patrol Maldives. Where do you see the relations now at the moment with India, how do you define now the relations?

Question: The question is on Seychelles archipelago. It has been three years since India signed the Assumption Island agreement with the Seychelles and the Foreign Secretary was recently in Seychelles for a joint commission meeting. Has he got any kind of assurance from the Seychelles government on this agreement ratification?

Question: Maldives President came here when Prime Minister was taking oath here. You also helped Maldives twice in the time of crisis but what went wrong that Maldives is now a troubled spot for us?

Question: Given the scale and enormity of Prime Minister’s diplomatic engagement on which the book is also based, I was wondering how do the logistics pan out because during the ASEAN summit I think people from protocol division experienced some kind of a bubble moment where there were overlapping between departures and exits of world leaders and also the fact that the Prime Minister has departed from the Normal diplomatic practice of decentralizing diplomacy whereby he is rolling a red carpet for world leaders in states. So how does this work out, is there any thought into strengthening the protocol division because the MEA, I presume, is short staffed?

External Affairs Minister, Smt. Sushma Swaraj: First of all Maldives, there were two questions on the Maldives. As far as Maldives is concerned, Maldives is our neighbor country. India First has been written down in their own foreign policy, India is first in their own foreign policy but you must have also observed that whichever government is in power, there have been slight ups and downs in relations with Maldives, even earlier also they have come, and now also. But the relationship with the Maldives is not broken and cannot break, because as I said it is our neighbor country.

You talked about LH, the matter of taking or not taking the LH is within the purview of defense ministry and that talks are also going on with the Ministry of Defense, not with the Ministry of External Affairs. But I can tell you that the relations are not broken, that the emergency which was imposed there recently, the emergency was later revoked, but even then democracy was not completely restored, we talked with them in the form of counseling, as a consultation, it is a matter of consultation. And now the humanitarian assistance which we are providing them, after these relations, which you think are bad, are not bad but have stayed a little, despite that we did not stop that humanitarian aid, the complete assistance what we were providing them is continuing without any deduction.

Even today, we are in contact with each other. Only recently we have received four letters from their foreign minister and has invited me, but we agreed on few things when he last visited we agreed on few things and said that first you complete these things then I will come. Till now nothing has moved, therefore the invitation is pending. But as far as the Maldivian Overall Situation is concerned, as I said that he had come as SAARC President, when we had invited all SAARC countries, the President of the Maldives also visited. Even after that, many times we met on the sidelines, so the relations with the Maldives are not broken, the relations with the Maldives cannot be broken and this is my statement on the Maldives.

As far as the assumption island is concerned, the agreements which covered the assumption island was concluded by the previous foreign secretary, and after that recently Mr.Vijay visited Seychelles during ASEAN, at that time I was sitting in Bilateral, they apologized for the delay, we could not do it but the agreement has been signed, only thing pending is the ratification by the Parliament and I think that the Parliament's ratification shall also be over shortly.

You talked about protocol, not even a single person, not even a single leader has complained to us regarding deficiencies in the protocol. Everybody has appreciated the manner in which they were treated and welcomed, everyone appreciated the hospitality. I do not know where from you get the news that there is deficiency in the protocol and no one has complained about any deficiencies.

Official Spokesperson, Shri Raveesh Kumar: We have gone way past the scheduled time. This will be the last question.

Question from News24: Your ministry has faced many challenges during the last 4 years. One challenge, about which I want to ask a specific question is about the Indians stranded in Mosul. Was something that was wrong at that time, whether it was misinterpreted at that time. Is there something that you might not have been able to say at that time, and perhaps you would like to clarify today because many misconceptions have spread.

External Affairs Minister, Smt. Sushma Swaraj: You used the right word misconceptions. They were really misconceptions, whatever I had at that time, I used to say that, I always talked about the truth only with respect to Iraq and in the House and outside the House and after that there is a government which has brought its people who were buried in the ground.

People of so many nationalities have died there, the bodies of people of many nationalities are lying there, but not even one government can say that they have brought out the dead bodies. Whatever bodies were given for DNA testing to them they did it, but here, General Saab went there, when he came to know that some corpses are buried in this mound, he got it dug, first got investigated by deep penetrating radar, after checking, the mound was dug up, corpses were removed from the mound, taken to Baghdad, then handed over to Martyr's Foundation and it was told that we feel that it is ours and you leave everything else and do it on priority, and as soon as they completed it, then it was found that 39 out of the 39 dead bodies were of our people and I tell you, General VK came back with 38 corpses and the 39th which was left behind was also identified through DNA testing and the 39th dead body has also been handed over to Bihar Government. That's why I have never given any misinformation about the incident of Mosul. I standby today also what I said then.

Official Spokesperson, Shri Raveesh Kumar: Thank you Ma’am. It is not possible obviously to include all the questions in a short time. Thank you Ma’am for your patience and it is creditable that you could answer all the questions without a shred of paper in front of paper in front of you and thank you all for joining.

(Concludes)

Disclaimer: This is an approximate translation of EAM’s Press Conference Hindi Transcription.