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Transcript of Media Briefing by Secretary (ER) on State Visit of Crown Prince of Saudi Arabia (February 20, 2019)

February 21, 2019

Official Spokesperson, Shri Raveesh Kumar: Namaskar, good afternoon and welcome to this special briefing on the visit of the Crown Prince of Saudi Arabia to India. You would have seen the visuals of his arrival yesterday at the airport and the special gesture which was extended by our Prime Minister when he went to the airport to receive the Crown Prince. Today morning apart from the ceremonial welcome Prime Minister had talks with the Crown Prince of Saudi Arabia in three different formats i.e. restricted, one on one and then followed by a delegation level talks.

To brief you on the visit as well as the discussions which took place between the Prime Minister and the Crown Prince of Saudi Arabia I have with me Secretary (Economic Relations) in the Ministry of External Affairs, Shri T S Tirumurti. I also have our Ambassador in Saudi Arabia. Secretary will do the briefing on the course of the visit and the details. After that we will have some time for the Q&A session. Sir, the floor is yours.

Secretary (ER), Shri T S Tirumurti: Friends, thank you very much coming this evening. His Royal Highness Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman bin Abdul Aziz Al-Saud, Deputy Prime Minister and the Defence Minister of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia is on his first state visit to India.

He arrived yesterday accompanied by a high level official delegation and a large business delegation. This morning His Royal Highness, the Crown Prince was accorded a ceremonial welcome at Rashtrapati Bhawan. Prime Minister and the Crown Prince had restricted level talks followed by one on one meeting at Hyderabad House. This was followed by delegation level talks after which Prime Minister hosted a lunch in honor of the visiting dignitary.

His Royal Highness, the Crown Prince will call on Hon’ble Rashtrapati Ji this evening and the Hon’ble Rashtrapati Ji will then host a banquet in honor of the visiting dignitary.

The meeting between the Prime Minister and the Crown Prince was held in an atmosphere of great warmth and friendship testifying to the close rapport between the two leaders. His Royal Highness recounted the centuries old links between the two countries as well as the variety of links which bind our two countries. He recalled his earlier visit to India and expressed great happiness at his coming to India again for his first state visit.

Both sides recalled Prime Minister’s successful visit to Riyadh in 2016, a visit which enhanced our engagement and took it to the next level. They also recalled the highly successful visit of His Majesty Mohammed bin Salman bin Abdul-Aziz Al Saud in 2014. Both leaders emphasized the strong spirit of friendship that binds the two countries and expressed their commitment to strengthen the strategic partnership of 2010 even further.

His Royal Highness conveyed his appreciation for the Indian model which signifies the ethos of inclusiveness, pluralism and tolerance. To cement the strategic partnership even further both sides agreed to setup a strategic partnership council which will be guided by Prime Minister and the Crown Prince and have ministerial representation covering all aspects of our bilateral relations.

This is an extremely important development in line with the desire of Saudi Arabia to deepen partnership with eight strategic partners one of whom is India. The Prime Minister welcomed the announcement of His Royal Highness the Crown Prince to invest US$100 billion in India in a range of areas like energy refining, petrochemicals, infrastructure, agriculture, manufacturing etc.

This is a clear reflection of the confidence of Saudi Arabia in the vibrancy of the Indian economy and the tremendous opportunities available in India for investment. They also expressed satisfaction at the positive trend in the bilateral trade in the recent past and the need to tap the untapped potential in trade particularly in non-oil trade. They expressed satisfaction at the first joint venture in energy of a refinery and a petrochemical project estimated at US$44 billion.

They also welcomed Saudi Arabia’s participation in India’s strategic petroleum reserves. The two leaders appreciated various initiatives being taken in their respective countries including Saudi Arabia’s ‘Vision 2030’ and India’s flagship initiatives like Make in India, Startup India, Digital India etc.

The Crown Prince also welcomed Prime Minister’s initiative on Coalition on Disaster Resilient Infrastructure and hailed it as an important step towards disaster management.

The two leaders condemned in the strongest terms the recent terrorist attack on Indian forces in Pulwama in Jammu & Kashmir. They expressed strong condemnation of terrorism in all its forms and manifestations. They called on all states to reject the use of terrorism against other countries, dismantle terrorist infrastructure, cut off any kind of support and financing to terrorists from all territories against other states and bring perpetrators of terrorism to justice.

Both leaders called upon all countries to renounce the use of terrorism as an instrument of state policy. They called on states to deny access to weapons to commit terrorist acts against other countries. Both leaders underlined the importance of comprehensive sanctioning of terrorists and their organizations by the United Nations. They called for concerted actions by the international community against terrorism and early adoption of the UN Comprehensive Convention on International Terrorism.

His Royal Highness appreciated consistent efforts made by Prime Minister Modi since May 2014 including Prime Minister’s personal initiatives to have friendly relations with Pakistan. In this context both sides agreed on the need for creation of conditions necessary for resumption of the Comprehensive Dialogue between India and Pakistan.

The Crown Prince highlighted terrorism and extremism as matters of common concern and expressed his determination to cooperate with India to fight this menace particularly through strong intelligence partnership with India. To enhance further cooperation in counter terrorism efforts and benefit mutually from real time intelligence sharing the two leaders agreed to constitute a Comprehensive Security Dialogue at the level of National Security Advisors and set up a joint working group on counter terrorism.

On the defense front the two leaders welcomed the outcome of the recently held Fourth Joint Committee of Defence Cooperation in Riyadh in January this year. They agreed to hold the first joint naval exercises at the earliest and expand our defense relations in other areas like joint exercises, joint production, supply chain development etc.

Both leaders agreed to enhance the cooperation to strengthen maritime security in the gulf and the Indian Ocean region. They agreed to cooperate along with other Indian Ocean Rim countries in serving as the net security provider for the Indian Ocean Region.

On regional connectivity projects both sides agreed that they should be based on universally recognized international norms including respect for sovereignty and territorial integrity of states. The leaders expressed serious concern at cyber terrorism and misuse of cyber space. They agreed to continue ongoing close cooperation in a range of security issues.

Prime Minister thanked the Saudi leadership for hosting a very large Indian community of over 2.7 million and for looking after their welfare. Prime Minister also thanked Saudi Arabia for designating India as the Guest of Honor in the prestigious Janadriyah festival in 2018.

Both leaders agreed to increase the frequency of direct flight of carriers of India and Saudi Arabia by 3,84,000 seats per annum which will give a huge boost to tourism as well as to the large Indian community in Saudi Arabia.

At our request Saudi Arabia have decided to increase the quota for Haj pilgrims from India to two lakhs. This gesture was deeply appreciated. India has also decided to extend e-visa facility to Saudi nationals. Saudi Arabia has also agreed to resolve issues relating to Indian workers who are currently stranded in Saudi Arabia due to the closure of one foreign company. This gesture was also deeply appreciated.

Both sides committed themselves to promote reformed multilateralism in multilateral fora and international organizations including pursuing UN Security Council reforms. We will also work together to address the problems and issues of fugitive economic offenders.

The following MoUs were signed this afternoon.

a)- MoU on investing in the National Investment and Infrastructure Fund of India,

b)- MoU on cooperation in the field of tourism,

c)- MoU on cooperation in the field of housing,

d)- Framework Cooperation Agreement in Invest India and Saudi Arabia General Investment Authority,

f)- MoU on cooperation in broadcasting for exchange of audio visual programs and finally,

g)- Agreement from the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia to join the International Solar Alliance.

Thank you very much.

Official Spokesperson, Shri Raveesh Kumar:
Thank you sir for the briefing. I now open the floor to questions. Would request if you could introduce yourself, your name and the organization you represent when you ask the question.

Question:
You mentioned there is a concerned understanding of going back to resumption of comprehensive dialogue, I presume it is to our neighboring country to our West. My question sir is this, why the reluctance and shying away from naming the perpetrators of the Pulwama attack when on every forum the Hon’ble Prime Minister and the other representatives of the government done so, is there a specific reason?

Question: A related question.
Was the complicity of Pakistan in the Pulwama attack underlined?

Secretary (ER), Shri T S Tirumurti: The complicity of Pakistan in the Pulwama attack was very much underlined.

Just to answer the first question, what they agreed was the need for creating necessary conditions for any resumption of talks. And the other aspect of your question is really on Pakistan, at this point of time let us focus on the Saudi Arabia visit.

Question: The $100 billion fund you referred to includes the already committed $44 billion Ratnagiri refinery project and also will it be invested through National Infrastructure and Investment Fund?

Question: Kya Saudi ki taraf se Bharat Pakistan ke beech jo tension chal rahi hai isko lekar kya madhyasthata kii peshkash kii gai hai Bharat ke samaksh?

(Does the Saudi side offered to mediate between India and Pakistan?)

Secretary (ER), Shri T S Tirumurti: As far as the first question is concerned, I don’t think we have necessarily a breakup of the $100 billion but that said definitely we are counting the investment which is going to go into the refinery and the petrochemical also. That said I wanted to also clarify that out of the $44 billion actually what I think they have envisaged is a 50-50 split between Indian investors and the foreign investors and even as regards the 50-50 split, two investors are coming in. From UAE is Adnoc and from Saudi Arabia it is Aramco. So we are looking at a much reduced type of investment which is probable $10-12 billion from the Saudi Arabian side. Yes it will probably include definitely this one but I am not able to give you a split up as such for the $100 billion.

Question Contd :
…on National Infrastructure and Investment fund…

Secretary (ER), Shri T S Tirumurti: No, there is no figure which has been mentioned but you will recall that the UAE had invested $1 billion in the National Infrastructure Fund and therefore we are looking at a figure for investment by the Saudi side into the NIIF, as of now we don’t have a figure.

Just to answer the second question, at this point of time no mediation has been offered.

Official Spokesperson, Shri Raveesh Kumar:
What I will do that if there is any question which relates to the meeting today and connects to Pakistan. Secretary here has answered that question and made it very clear that both countries strongly condemned the Pulwama attack in the strongest possible terms. So I will not take any question related to this topic now.

Question: This is related to the $100 billion investment. I just wanted to understand, is there a time period when this investment will come in?Secretary (ER), Shri T S Tirumurti: There is no time period as of now.

Question Contd.: So it was a commitment to invest $100 billion.

Secretary (ER), Shri T S Tirumurti: It was a commitment to investment $100 billion but let me also say that some of the talks are already going on on what are the areas and the sectors we should be looking at. IN fact the NITI Aayog team was there just four days ago precisely to look at the various areas which they are looking at for investments and in fact the workshop which took place between NITI Aayog and the Saudi Center for International Strategic Partnership took place in Riyadh. They have identified more than 40 opportunities for joint collaboration investment across various sectors. So will have to sit and work through these 40 sectors and 40 opportunities and see what comes up.

Question: One question is on the prisoners in Saudi Arabia. Saudi Arabia has the largest number of Indian prisoners in West Asia in their jails, was that discussed and another question on the oil prices, something that Indian Prime Minister also raised in his last meeting on the sidelines of G20.

– The issue of prisoners was discussed and the reaction from the Saudi side was a positive reaction but at this point of time we are working through this but this was very much taken up. And on oil prices, that has always been a matter of discussion particularly energy is a major area and Saudi Arabia is one of the pillars for our energy security, so therefore all these were taken up with the Saudi side.

Question from BBC: Recent reports are that Indians working in Saudi Arabia are facing a lot of hardships probably more than 100 thousand workers have come back to India. Just like the Pakistani government spoke to the Saudi government to ease up the new tax regime that the Saudi government has imposed on workers there. Has the government of India taken up this issue with the Saudi government?

Question from Swaraj Express News Channel:
This is about how to tackle the pending resolution of UN on terrorism, is it the same which is pending since 1986, and why this has been taking long time, what are the roadblocks?

Official Spokesperson, Shri Raveesh Kumar: Your question goes beyond the mandate of what we are discussing today, you are more or less a UN related matter, you are talking about the CCIT, right.

Question Contd.: Yes, as it has been referred to.

Secretary (ER), Shri T S Tirumurti: Now let me say that the issue of Indian workers in Saudi Arabia is a matter of high importance for both countries and these taxes are discussed in various contexts including today, they have been discussed.

The taxes you are actually referring to is not on the workers actually, it is slightly different, just for clarification but one of the issue which is rather immediate which we have had accosted with was that there was a foreign company which had actually closed down, I think it is a Cyprus company in which more than 2600 workers have been stranded.

This has been a matter which has been of great concern to us and great concern for the Saudi side also and we have been working with them trying to resolve this. And the indication that we have got today is a very positive indication and that is why I am happy to announce that we are working through this and as regards the few other things also, we have taken them up with them and they have promised they will be considering it most seriously.

Question: Often the numbers of the Indian diaspora varies, is it 3.1 million or 3 million, so what is the correct number?

Indian Ambassador to Saudi Arabia, Mr. Ahmad Javed: These numbers are based on the official figures released by the Saudi Ministry of Interiors from time to time. You are right there was a time, a year or so ago or maybe a little more, it was 3.1 million but the latest figure which have been received by us this January or maybe December is 2.7 million plus. So this number keeps changing up and down depending on many factors but this is the figure as of right now. When the next figures come we will be in a position but as of now right now we are talking about 2.7 plus.

Question Contd.: So the number of returnees is more than 100 thousand?

Indian Ambassador to Saudi Arabia, Mr. Ahmad Javed: You are talking about a period which included, since you have mentioned it, the amnesty which went on in 17 with all people with illegal that basically means no documents, they were covered and those who did not avail of that amnesty, the Saudis declared and went on to a program of flushing out, so in that process during amnesty and this thing I don’t think more than a 100 thousand total plus, but over a period of a year and a half it has happened.

Official Spokesperson, Shri Raveesh Kumar:
On CCIT, CCIT is something which normally when we have discussions with partners we do request and we tell them that this is matter which is long pending and we seek their support in concluding this agreement at the earliest. It is not Saudi specific.

Question: The Haj quota hike will be implemented from this year or next year?

Question: Did I hear you right when you said that the Saudi Prince agreed that terrorists of all variety should be sanctioned comprehensively by the UN? In that case how does it square with the joint statement that they made with the Pakistanis two days ago that said that cautioned against politicizing UN sanctions?

Secretary (ER), Shri T S Tirumurti:
To answer the first question, the agreement for hiking the Haj quota is just being reached and when it will come effective will really depend on the logistics and other things and we will have to discuss with them because it is a very-very massive exercise. So that is why that is something that we need to sit and discuss.

And as second question is concerned, let me just read it out to you, this is for comprehensive sanctioning of the not only the terrorists but also the terrorist organizations by the United Nations. So it is both because we have had a couple of anomalies and that is why it was important for us to emphasize the fact that it is not just the terrorist organization, it is also important for the terrorists to also be sanctioned in that organization and that is something which they have completely agreed.

Question Contd.: ………how does it square up?

Secretary (ER), Shri T S Tirumurti: See, number one, I don’t want to comment on how it squares up but let me say that if you are really looking at politicization then you know that who is politicizing it.

Question: Was there any discussion on other common regional issues and if so can you just outline the broader areas?

Question: On security and defence and terrorism there were references in 2014 and 2016 joint statements and a lot of languages used here. What’s the difference in defence and terrorism cooperation in this instance, comprehensive sanctions is one as mentioned just now, what are other forward movement in defence and terrorism?

Question: Did you discuss the Afghan situation with the Saudi delegation and are the Saudis on the same side as far as the Indian position of Afghan led, Afghan controlled peace process?

Secretary (ER), Shri T S Tirumurti: We did not discuss the Afghan situation during this visit. As far as other areas which were discussed broadly it referred to, we discussed areas relating to the Middle East, Syria and Palestine.

In connection with the question on I think you should look at the joint statement before you see what is the difference between the statement now and the statement before. But one of the important aspect is that they have acknowledged and I think that is important as has been pointed out that comprehensive sanctioning of terrorists and the organization, I think that is certainly something which they talked about.

They also condemned in the strongest terms the terrorist attack on our Indian forces in Pulwama. We have also looked at the need for real time intelligence sharing and a comprehensive security dialogue at the level of the National Security Advisors. There had also been a clear indication by the leaders in calling upon all countries to renounce the use of terrorism as an instrument of state policy. Once again they are also looking at cutting off any support and financing to terrorists from all territories against other states.

Official Spokesperson, Shri Raveesh Kumar: With this we conclude this special press briefing on the visit of the Crown Prince of Saudi Arabia. Thank you all for joining.

(Concludes)
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