Director (XPD), Dr. Venkatachalam Murugan:
Welcome to the briefing on President’s state visit to The Gambia. To brief you we have Shri T S Tirumurti, Secretary (ER) of Ministry of External Affairs and Shri R Ravindra, Jt. Secretary from Ministry of External Affairs and Mr. Nimish Rustagi, Deputy Press
Secretary to the President.
Secretary (ER), Shri T S Tirumurti: Friends, thank you very much for coming here this afternoon. The Hon’ble President of India is currently on a state visit to The Gambia. This is the second leg of his historic visit
to the West Africa. This is the first ever visit of the President of India to The Gambia.
During this visit he is accompanied by Hon’ble Minister of State, Shri Pratap Chandra Sarangi, Hon’ble Minister of Parliament, Shri Dileep Ghosh and other senior officials.
Yesterday on arrival, Hon’ble Rashtrapati Ji was received by His Excellency, President Adama Barrow himself at the airport. This was followed by a ceremonial welcome.
This morning the two leaders met at the State House, these discussions were held in a very warm and cordial atmosphere attesting to the close relationship between the two countries. Hon’ble Rashtrapati Ji congratulated President Barrow on restoring democracy
to The Gambia and for bringing peace and stability and growth to the country. He called it, the watershed moment for The Gambia.
Hon’ble Rashtrapati Ji also thanked President Barrow for personally writing a beautiful piece entitled ‘What Mahatma Gandhi Means to Me’ to commemorate the 150th birth anniversary of Mahatma Gandhi.
Hon’ble President reiterated India’s commitment to support Gambia’s development. In particular India has agreed to reallocate our line of credit of $92 million for infrastructure projects as well as extend ground assistance to support capacity building for
revival of cottage industry and solar energy projects to install 300 solar home system and 20 solar water pumps in selective villages in The Gambia.
We have also agreed to defer payment of line of credit already utilized by The Gambia.
His Excellency President Barrow expressed his happiness at the first ever visit of the President of India to The Gambia and thanked Rashtrapati Ji for choosing The Gambia as one of the first countries to visit in West Africa.
He hailed India’s democracy and expressed his conviction to emulate India’s democracy as well as holding of regular peaceful elections. He expressed his determination to bring about a change in the lives of his people and called on India to be a partner
in this process. He thanked India for development assistance including the construction of the National Assembly of The Gambia. He expressed his gratitude to the capacity building and training assistance being extended to The Gambia especially recently held
training course for the permanent secretaries and senior civil servants of The Gambia in India.
The two leaders expressed their determination to fight terrorism in all its forms and manifestations. They have also agreed to cooperate in the spirit of South-South Cooperation at the international and bilateral level.
Hon’ble Rashtrapati Ji thanked The Gambia for its strong support to India’s candidature in international organization including in the United Nations. In particular Hon’ble Rashtrapati Ji thanked President Barrow for his offer of support to and for looking
after the welfare of the Indian community in The Gambia. President Barrow acknowledged the positive role played by them in the progress of The Gambia.
The agreement on cooperation in tradition medicine was signed. In a significant gesture President Barrow presented the ratification instrument of The Gambia for the International Solar Alliance.
President Barrow hosted a state lunch and banquet in honor of Hon’ble Rashtrapati Ji.
This afternoon Hon’ble Rashtrapati Ji will be addressing the National Assembly where the Speaker of the National Assembly and all the members of the parliament will be present. The National Assembly is being convened in a special session to honor our President.
Later Rashtrapati Ji will address Indian community of The Gambia. Some members of the Indian community from Senegal and the Guinea-Bissau will be coming for this very special event.
Tomorrow Hon’ble Rashtrapati Ji will be inaugurating a Mahatma Gandhi and Khadi exhibition as a part of the celebrations of the 150th birth anniversary of Mahatma Gandhi. The Khadi exhibition has been sent to us by the Khadi and Village Industries
Commission while the Gandhi exhibition has been curated by the set by the Gandhi Samiti and Darshan Samaj Samiti of New Delhi and the Sabarmati Ashram Preservation Memorial Trust of Ahmedabad.
The Vice President of The Gambia will received Hon’ble Rashtrapati Ji at these exhibitions.
Indian Social and Cultural Association of The Gambia are supporting the exhibitions which will be held at the Ebunjan Theater from 1 August to 2 October, 2019. Thank you.
Director (XPD), Dr. Venkatachalam Murugan: Thank you sir for the detailed account of the state visit of the President to The Gambia. I now request Deputy Press Secretary to the President to make his remarks.
Deputy Press Secretary to the President, Shri Nimish Rustagi: I would just like to add a little to what Secretary has already briefed.
The President was truly touched by the warmth and goodwill that has been shown by the leaders and the people of The Gambia towards India and he was truly surprised by the kind of goodwill that Indians have here and also he was very happy when President Barrow
acknowledged the contribution of Indian community to the development of The Gambia and also extended full support and assured that Indian community will get full support of the Gambian government in all its ventures and all its work here.
Secretary may correct me but I believe that the President also offered extended an invitation to President Barrow to visit India, so that was something I just wanted to add.
Question: Just a small clarification, you said that we decided that the Gambians may defer the payment of the line of credit already utilized, what does that means?
Secretary (ER), Shri T S Tirumurti: See, we have been extending lines of credit to The Gambia even before the $92 million credit which we offered and these are actually projects which are ongoing and some of them are
ongoing and some of them are very successfully executed. So the time for repayment of them has started but His Excellency President Barrow made a special request to Hon’ble Rashtrapati Ji that can this repayment schedule be deferred and Rashtrapati Ji has
agreed that we will look into this and we will agree to the deferment of repayment of these.
Question Contd.: Not waiver but defer?
Secretary (ER), Shri T S Tirumurti: Yes, it will be deferment, not waiver.
Question Contd.: Also this $92 million line of credit is being utilized in that PVC pipes project?
Secretary (ER), Shri T S Tirumurti: Actually earlier this was given for building a port but since they have major infrastructure requirements so His Excellency, the President of The Gambia requested whether this can
be allocated to another area of infrastructure, which will be mainly roads and we have agreed to reallocate.
Question Contd.: So not a new allocation but the same will be allocated?
Secretary (ER), Shri T S Tirumurti: Yes, the same will be reallocated but at the same time let me also say that Hon’ble Rashtrapati Ji reiterated that we stand ready to contribute to the development of The Gambia.
Director (XPD), Dr. Venkatachalam Murugan: Since there are no more questions we conclude this press briefing.
(Concludes)