Press Briefings
Briefing by Official Spokesperson on Canadian Prime Minister’s Visit to India
16/11/2009
Official Spokesperson (Shri Vishnu Prakash): Good evening. My colleague and I wanted to give you a perspective on the visit of the Prime Minister of Canada. It is my pleasure to introduce my colleague Mrs. Gaitri I. Kumar who is Joint Secretary (Americas) and amongst other things responsible for the Canadian affairs.
Prime Minister Stephen Harper will be paying an official visit to India at the invitation of the Prime Minister of India from 15-18 November. He will be accompanied by his spouse Mrs. Laureen Harper, Foreign Minister Lawrence Cannon, Minister of International Trade Mr. Stockwell Day, five Members of Parliament, senior officials and representatives of the media.
I will briefly take you through the programme. Today he is in Mumbai where he has had a meeting with the leaders of CII, FICCI and Indian Merchants Chamber. He arrives Delhi later this evening. Tomorrow in the morning External Affairs Minister calls on him. Then there is a call by him on the President of India. There is a call on him by the Leader of Opposition Shri Lal Krishna Advani. He calls on the Vice-President of India. There is a likely meeting with Chairperson of UPA Smt Sonia Gandhi. In the evening, as you have already seen the advisory, there is the delegation level talk with the Prime Minister followed by signing of agreements and then a joint Press Interaction. Members of the media are invited for the joint Press Interaction. There will be, as far as I know, a statement by each leader and then they will take a question each. Prime Minister Harper also pays a visit to Amritsar where inter alia he would be visiting the Golden Temple. That is on the 18th. That evening he returns home.
As you know, bilateral relations are a foreign policy priority for both our countries. We wholeheartedly welcome the visit of the Head of Government of one of our longstanding partners. Canada is one of the world’s strongest economies. It is a member of the Commonwealth; it is a member of G8; it is a member of G20 and APEC. It features amongst the world’s top ten trading countries. It has the second largest oil reserves in the world, after Saudi Arabia; and is one of the biggest suppliers of uranium in the world. It is also richly endowed with a number of minerals including iron ore, potash, I mentioned uranium, nickel, zinc, diamonds, and also has advanced mining technology.
Canada supported India last year on the issue of the civil nuclear cooperation at Vienna, and also at the Nuclear Suppliers’ Group meeting. Since last year both countries have been discussing a civil nuclear cooperation agreement and three rounds of discussions have already taken place.
Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh and Prime Minister Harper are no strangers to each other. They have met several times. They have had bilateral interactions including on the sidelines of CHOGM at Kampala in November 2007 and at Hokkaido during the G8 Summit in July 2008. You are also aware that the next G8 and G20 summit will be hosted in Canada in June next year.
Both countries are focussing on areas where we see sizeable potential like trade and investment, science and technology, education, agriculture, energy, environment, raw materials, mining, etc. You have a very broad canvas where we see rich potential for furthering our cooperation. We similarly want to deepen our bilateral linkages in areas like biotechnology, natural resources, infrastructure sector and so on.
Trade, currently at close to $5 billion, is not commensurate with the potential that exists. But I would like to note that last year, in 2008, trade grew 22 % and it is more or less balanced. There are plans to give trade a sizeable boost by taking a slew of measures some of which I would be happy to touch upon. I did mention that the Minister of International Trade is accompanying Prime Minister Harper. He will have separate discussions with Commerce and Industry Minister and with the Minister of Road Transport and Highways on how the bilateral trade and Canada’s presence in our infrastructure sector could be further enhanced. We are discussing Bilateral Investment Potential Agreement. We are also discussing the Social Security Agreement.
As you are perhaps aware, there is also an India-Canada CEOs’ Round Table which has been set up and which has recommended that the two countries may consider a Free Trade Agreement which will certainly give an impetus to bilateral trade. That is one recommendation which has been taken on board and is under consideration. Indian companies have also invested in Canada and have further evinced interest in sectors like oil and gas exploration.
Tourism has shown a marked increase between the two countries thanks especially to a sizeable Indian community and growing interest in India in Canada. Last year, in 2008, close to 350,000 tourists were exchanged between the two countries. The Indian population, as I said, is sizeable. It is 1.1 million as per the 2006 census. You will be interested to know that Punjabi is the fourth largest spoken language in Canada. The Indian community is also politically active. We have currently 12 Members of Parliament of Indian origin in the House of Commons and 1 in the Senate.
That is just to give you a picture of the relationship, the background in which the visit is taking place. As I said, we wholeheartedly welcome this visit. Both sides during the visit would review our broad-based ties and discuss matters of bilateral, regional and international interest. We are keen on enhancing cooperation at all levels in all fields.
Let me close here by just adding that a number of agreements are also likely to be signed about which we will let you know tomorrow. Thank you.
New Delhi
November 16, 2009