Press Briefings

Press interaction of Foreign Secretary with media in Thimpu

18/06/2009

Foreign Secretary (Shri Shivshankar Menon): Welcome ladies and gentlemen, I thought I would brief you about the events today during EAM’s first ever visit abroad which he chose to make to Bhutan.

As you know, he arrived early this morning in a special aircraft. The first thing he did at Paro airport itself was to flag off the new flight to Bagdogra of Druk Air. EAM and Lyonpo Ugyen Tshering signed the boarding cards themselves for some of the passengers and saw the flight off.

Soon after coming here, the Minister had an audience with His Majesty the King. His Majesty was gracious enough also to offer lunch at Dechhencholing Palace. Thereafter, he met the with the Fourth King, the previous Druk Gyalpo, at India House, which was an informal meeting, and then went to the Secretariat where he had a meeting with Lyonchhen Prime Minister Jigmi Thinley. Later in the evening there will be a banquet by the Prime Minister in the Royal Banquet Hall at 7.45 pm.

In all these conversations it was evident that the depth, the warmth and the meeting of minds that characterize India-Bhutan relations were stronger and deeper than ever. This was an occasion for the Minister to show his commitment to this relationship by coming here first, by making this the first of all of his foreign visits as Minister. It was also an occasion for him to learn about the relationship, to talk about the details. The Dechhencholing especially described the nature of the relationship to him in very warm terms, so did the King, so did the former King. In fact, the word they used was to say that we have excellent relations. In all cases, everybody – the Minister, everyone he met – said that they saw India and Bhutan’s future as being interlinked. They naturally discussed the nature of that relationship, of how it has evolved, of how India looks forward to working with Bhutan to bring about development and prosperity.

Politically, as you know, the last year has been a very active year within Bhutan and in India-Bhutan relations, as Bhutan has made the transition to democracy, as they have had their elections, and then the Coronation that took place in November. Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh visited Bhutan in May last year. He addressed the National Assembly. Thereafter, for the Coronation, our President herself was here, and so were Mrs. Sonia Gandhi and her family as well as EAM. There has been a series of high-level visits from Bhutan to India that took place last year. Prime Minister Thinley visited India last year. If you look at, it has been a very active period it in terms of visits, in terms of political exchanges.

In terms of work on the ground as well we have set ourselves a very ambitious target of at least 10,000 MW of electricity being generated in Bhutan through India-Bhutan cooperation by 2020. We are on track. We have a programme which actually plans for more than 10,000 MW. We have an Empowered Joint Group which is headed by very senior people on both sides to make sure that this is actually gets done. They have met once. We have signed an MoU. We have done all the agreements. We will meet again very soon within a month so that we can actually see the implementation on the ground.

The Minister was also briefed about the progress in Bhutan itself by the Prime Minister. He expressed gratification to hear how the various issues in, what he called at one stage, the ‘Kingdom of Happiness’ are being dealt with and how smoothly the democratic transition is taking place.

It is important to note that ours is not just any relationship, but one which probably does not have another similar relationship anywhere in the world. This is also a relationship which is absolutely trouble-free. It is a relationship in which we are joined by what we both want to do together, what we have achieved in the past – which is also quite a great deal – and by what we want to do together.

As we were coming back in the car the Minister was telling me that it has really been a wonderful visit, that it reinforces his conviction for the future of the relationship.

I will be happy to take questions, if any.

Question: Sir, what were the other issues that figured in the meeting between the PM and the EAM?

Foreign Secretary: There was a fair amount of detail from the PM about how development is going on. Then there was a discussion also on complementarity between the economies. For instance, NASSCOM has been here recently; NIIT is starting a big project here. They took a road show with their Communications Minister to India which was successful in signing contracts. So, there are Indian IT companies looking at setting up centers and so on here. Recently the Indian Chamber of Commerce from Kolkata was here. They also have some ideas. Many of them are useful ideas because they actually take development down to the grassroots. They were talking, for instance, of organic-farming, of producing organic fertilizers. This is a niche which is now increasingly important in the world. There was some discussion, for instance, with His Majesty the King about the environment, and all that Bhutan has done is quite remarkable. I myself can see the difference in Thimpu from when I first came here almost thirty years ago. You can see the greening that has been undertaken. There was discussion on new and renewable energy, solar, wind, the effects of Aila, etc. But this is a discussion between friends who have the same interests, who want to do things together. It is an easy sort of discussion. I can go through a long list like this.

Question: Were any regional issues discussed in the meeting?

Foreign Secretary: Not really. SAARC Summit was discussed briefly because Bhutan will host the next SAARC Summit next spring. We were talking about how that would be done and what ideas Bhutan has. There are still about ten months. It will be in the next March actually.

Question: (inaudible)

Foreign Secretary: SAARC is the real issue of the discussion. Otherwise, there was this general review of what is happening in the region. But, as I said, it was between two … Question: Can you tell us a bit more about your discussions with King IV …

Foreign Secretary: Today’s relationship we owe in great part to what he has done and what he did right through to nurture the relationship, to bring it to this stage where we are so comfortable, so easy in working with. Some of it was for the future – what sort of things he thinks we might be doing or we should be doing. We discussed that. There again, I think he has a sort of vision, a long-term vision, for Bhutan and for India. Primarily, as he always says, I think he likes to say that whatever he does, he does for Bhutan’s interest, for the country’s interest. But he does not see a difference between the two. He feels also that our futures are interlinked. So, he has a long-term strategic sense of the relationship which is always useful and refreshing and for me educative to listen into.

Question: I will come back to the regional issues. Was there any particular country which was discussed when you were talking about a general review of the regional issues?

Foreign Secretary: … Nepal, for instance. The situation in Nepal, -- (inaudible)

Thank you