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Briefing by Official Spokesperson on PM’s bilateral meetings in Seoul

November 11, 2010

Official Spokesperson (Shri Vishnu Prakash): Good evening. As you are aware, the Prime Minister of India, who arrived at Seoul yesterday to participate in the G20 Summit, had a number of important engagements and bilateral meetings today. His bilateral meetings include those with the Prime Minister of Ethiopia, the President of Mexico, and the Prime Minister of UK. I would endeavour to share with you some details of these three important bilateral meetings.

In the morning, he had a meeting with the Prime Minister of Ethiopia His Excellency Mr. Meles Zenawi. They had a very warm meeting, a very friendly meeting which is reflective of our excellent ties with Ethiopia. Prime Minister Zenawi was very appreciative of India's support to Ethiopia in its economic development, capacity-building. They are, as you know, beneficiaries of the ITEC programme. We are setting up a large vocational training centre in Ethiopia, and also offering a number of scholarships amongst other things.

He also spoke in glowing terms about India's developmental partnership with Africa and hailed it as a model of cooperation among developing countries. Ethiopia is the Chairman of NEPAD and also hosts the Headquarters of the African Union.

PM Meles first assumed office in 1995 and was recently re-elected. He is an old friend of India. He has been to India on several occasions including his last state visit to India in November 2007. He traveled in April 2008 to India to attend the First India-Africa Forum Summit. He visited Delhi in February in 2009 once more for the Delhi Sustainable Development Summit. He warmly invited our Prime Minister to visit Ethiopia. The invitation was gladly accepted.

We have historical ties with Ethiopia which go back two thousand years. In fact our trading links are as old as the sixth century AD when India supplied silk, spices, etc., to Ethiopia.
Ethiopia has always been very supportive of India's positions on various global issues. I would like to note here that they supported, voted for the non-permanent UNSC seat of India recently. And the Prime Minister of India thanked him very warmly for the support of Ethiopia. The two leaders also discussed the African position on UN reforms.

We have good bilateral trade with Ethiopia which is close to 500 million dollars. Even more significantly, sizeable Indian investments have been flowing in. We have in all more than four billion dollars in investments, of which 1.5 billion was invested in Ethiopia in just 2009. Close to 500 Indian companies are operating in Ethiopia in diverse sectors including agriculture, textiles, engineering, plastics, water management, information and communication technology, human resource development, pharmaceuticals, floriculture which has become an important sector by the way, and so on.

The Prime Minister conveyed to his counterpart that the Exim Bank of India would soon set up a Rep Office in Addis. The Ethiopian Prime Minister sought India's help to establish a railway line between Ethiopia and Djibouti. We have agreed to study that proposal.

During the visit of the External Affairs Minister to Ethiopia in July 2007, India had extended a line of credit worth 640 million dollars over a five year period to strengthen and expand the sugar industry in Ethiopia. A sizeable chunk of the line of credit has already been released. The funds have been transferred and they are being utilized very effectively.

The Pan-African e-Network Project was launched from Addis Ababa a year and a half ago. Seeing the efficacy, the efficiency of the e-network project, Ethiopia recently signed MOUs of Cooperation on commercial terms with IIT Delhi and IIT Kanpur to provide tele-education to twenty regional universities in Ethiopia.

I mentioned that the Prime Minister of Ethiopia had come to India in April 2008 for the first India-Africa Forum Summit. The Second India-Africa Forum Summit is likely to be held in Africa next year. The two leaders also exchanged views on holding the Summit. I mentioned that the Ethiopian Prime Minister warmly welcomed India's partnership with Africa and has also hailed it as a model of cooperation. So, the two sides discussed ways and means to take the India-AU partnership further.

He mentioned that the African Union was currently considering the proposal, and preparations will be initiated once a decision is taken about the date and venue of the Summit in Africa. They also briefly discussed Africa's priorities in G20.

Let me next turn to the meeting of our Prime Minister with the President of Mexico His Excellency Felipe Calderon. The two leaders have been meeting regularly on the sidelines of international fora. The leaders warmly recalled the very successful visit of President Calderon to India in September 2007 when, recognizing each other's strengths and complementarities the two countries had decided to elevate our relationship to the level of a privileged partnership.
We have historically enjoyed warm and friendly relations with Mexico. It is a trillion dollar economy and the second largest after Brazil in Latin America. Our diplomatic relations go back to 1950, and we are currently celebrating the 60th anniversary of establishment of our diplomatic relations.

The President of India had paid a significant visit to Mexico in April 2008. And recently in August, amongst other high-level and important visits, we had welcomed the Foreign Minister of Mexico Ms. Patricia Espinosa on her first official visit to India.

We have bilateral trade which ranges between two to three billion dollars, which is certainly below the potential, and a trade target of five billion dollars has been established which we hope to achieve soon. India is also an important investor in Mexico with our investments exceeding 1.5 billion dollars.

India and Mexico have a strong cultural affinity. Mexicans have traditionally shown a lot of interest in Indian art, dances, films, yoga, music and so on. Indian personalities like Mahatma Gandhi, Tagore, Mother Theresa are widely admired in the country. We have decided to have several cultural activities to commemorate and celebrate the 60th anniversary of establishment of our diplomatic relations.

You are aware that Mexico is also hosting the COP 16 Summit on climate change in Cancun between 29th November and 10th of December. Prime Minister and President exchanged notes on the discussions on climate change and the preparations for the forthcoming summit. Prime Minister was of the opinion that initiatives which have a fair chance of garnering consensus should be identified so that the outcome from the Summit is pragmatic, forward-looking and result oriented. They felt that efforts and preparations were moving in the right direction, and that particularly the concerns of the developing countries should be kept in mind, and that the outcome, the decisions, the discussion should conform to UNFCCC and the Kyoto Protocol.

Both with President Calderon and with Prime Minister Cameron – I will come to the other aspects of discussion with Prime Minister Cameron momentarily – Prime Minister had discussions on the G20 process. Both leaders sought our Prime Minister's views as an eminent economist, his assessment on G20. It was felt by all concerned that greater attention should be paid to global imbalances and to achieving economic stability.

They expressed happiness at initial steps to reform the IMF and the quota sharing arrangements. They also, exchanged views on the G20 post the economic crisis phase noting that the response immediately post crisis was magnificent and now the real challenge was take steps to consolidate the efforts that had been initiated. They also agreed that there was no universally agreed diagnosis as to what ails the world economy.

President Calderon invited the Prime Minister of India to visit Mexico and the invitation was accepted with pleasure.

Touching on some other aspects of Prime Minister's meeting with Rt Hon. David Cameron of UK, both sides recalled the very successful state visit paid by Prime Minister Cameron to India on 27-29 July when he had led one of the most important delegations ever from UK to India, which included a number of Cabinet Ministers, a very large business delegation, a number of officials and so on.

The two Prime Ministers have been meeting regularly. Before his state visit to India they had met on the sidelines of the G20 Summit in Toronto on the 26th of June. I may recall that soon after his becoming the Leader of Opposition, David Cameron visited India in October 2006 when he had also met with Prime Minister and other leaders.
We had established a strategic partnership with the UK in 2004 which was elevated to the level of enhanced partnership for the future during the visit of Prime Minister David Cameron in July. Our President had paid a state visit to UK in October 2009. Recently, last month, the HRH the Prince of Whales, Prince Charles had visited India for the Commonwealth Games.

You are aware that UK is among our major trading partners. Our bilateral trade, excluding services, was about 11 billion dollars in 2009-10. With cumulative investments of over six billion, UK is the fourth largest investor in India. On the other hand, Indian companies have been investing very actively in UK having become the third largest investor in UK and the second largest investor in London. Currently close to 600 companies are based in UK of which half are in London.

One of the decisions taken during the visit of Prime Minister David Cameron to set up India-UK CEOs Forum has been activated and this forum has been set up. It is co-chaired by Mr. Ratan Tata from the Indian side and Mr. Peter Sands, Chairman of Standard Bank, from the British side.

UK has also been steadfast in its support for India's permanent membership of the UN Security Council, and had extended valuable support for our nonpermanent seat for which elections were held last month. The two Prime Ministers, other than on G20 which I mentioned, also exchanged views on the Doha Round and other regional issues of mutual interest.

These are I thought some of the highlights of the three important bilateral meetings that our Prime Minister has had today with his counterparts.

Question:Do you have the composition of the India-UK CEOs Forum?

Official Spokesperson: That I can give you.

Question: And did you imply that the activation decision was a consequence of today's meeting?

Official Spokesperson: No, not at all. I was giving you a little background because the visit of David Cameron was in July and amongst various decisions taken was this important decision, given the fact that the economic relationship and partnership is one of the bedrocks of our bilateral relationship. So, to give it a qualitative impulse one of these decisions was taken and which has been activated. That is what I was saying.

Question: Coming back to the G20 you referred to in terms of the discussions with Prime Minister Cameron…

Official Spokesperson: Both the Prime Minister and the President.

Question: Yes. You said that it was felt during the discussions that there is no universal diagnosis of what ails the world economy. Could you expand on that?

Official Spokesperson: That is the reading I have. I do not have further details on that.

Question: Would I be right in inferring that Prime Minister disagreed with the British and the Mexican position on the currency issue and the global …

Official Spokesperson: I am afraid since I was personally not there in the meeting - these were short meetings, each meeting was about thirty minutes or round abouts – I am going by the readout that I have. So, this is what I have to share on the matter.

Question: Would I be correct in inferring that?

Official Spokesperson: Inferences are yours.

Question: When is the PM going to Ethiopia and Mexico?

Official Spokesperson: These are the invitations which have been extended today and have been gladly accepted. Mutually convenient dates are always worked out through diplomatic channels.

Question: Today our Prime Minister has told the PM of Ethiopia that we Indians would be contributing a Vocational Training Centre which is going to open in Ethiopia and offer scholarships. Can you highlight on the areas in which scholarships will be given like in education or medical or engineering, and the vocational training centre which we have offered?

Official Spokesperson: Happily. Capacity-building and human resource development is one of the very important areas of cooperation between India and Africa. We have what we call the ITEC (Indian Technical and Economic Cooperation) programme which is as old as about 50 years now. If I remember offhand, it was initiated in 1962. Under that ITEC programme we have been offering about six thousand training slots every year, and the entire cost is borne by the Government of India, to about 155 of our partner countries worldwide. Out of six thousand, one/third have traditionally been going to Africa. But during the India-Africa Forum Summit it was decided to enhance the efforts of capacity-building significantly. We had offered 20,000 scholarships over a five-year period for Africa. These are in different areas including medical, high-technology, engineering, and there is Raman Fellowship which is at postgraduate level, and so on. We have also launched the Pan-African e-Network Project of which already the second phase has been initiated and over 35 countries have already become part of. Under that we are offering tele-medicine and tele-education programmes which also has been found very useful by our African partners.

Question: Sir, just a few minutes before I heard the Chinese Minister airing his view that if America catches cold, they should not ask for the Chinese medicines. As we enter the G20 Summit right now, it seems that it is more and more becoming like a G2 with America and China or to some extent G3 including Germany. So, by not taking positions on hard issues of trade imbalances and the currency war, do not you think India is going to get marginalized by doing rhetoric on infrastructure development and voicing concerns against protectionism?

Official Spokesperson: We see G20 as the premier forum to address economic issues. India as one of the largest economies in the world, as one of the fastest growing emerging economies, under the leadership of Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh who is an eminent economist, has been participating in the G20 process right since the first Summit meeting was held in Washington. India and the Indian Prime Minister have been participating in that actively, constructively and positively and that is where it is. I have already shared with you some of the thoughts of the Prime Minister. We will continue to engage with the G20 process which I said is a premier economic forum representing almost 85 per cent of the global GDP, and it is important to India as it is to other countries in the world.

Question: Just a follow-up to this question. Yesterday, Sherpa had told us that the communiqué is a work in progress. Any progress today on the communiqué?

Official Spokesperson: Well, it is work in progress and soon, as the communiqué is finalized, we will share it with you.

Question: Can you tell us something about what has happened in G20 today?

Official Spokesperson: The meetings are taking place. I am not a part of the preparatory meetings. That is for the Sherpas and Sou-Sherpas who have been at it. At a suitable time, like we did yesterday, we will invite one of the participants to come and brief you.

Question: Sir, any idea when our Prime Minister is going to speak at the Summit?

Official Spokesperson: I believe it is going to be in the first half of the day tomorrow. As soon as we have a firm time and other details, we are more keen than you are to share it with you.

Thank you very much.

(Concluded)

Seoul
November 11, 2010



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