Press Briefings
Media Briefing by Secretary (East) on the 7th India-ASEAN Summit
24/10/2009
Official Spokesperson (Shri Vishnu Prakash): Good evening and a very warm welcome to all of you. Secretary (East) Shri N. Ravi is here to brief you on Prime Minister’s programme in the afternoon, the 7th India-ASEAN summit and bilateral meetings on the sidelines of the Summit. I have also the pleasure of introducing Ms. Latha Reddy, Ambassador of India to Thailand and Shri Harish Khare, Media Adviser to the Prime Minister. Sir, the floor is yours
Secretary (East) (Shri N. Ravi): Thank you, Vishnu. Good evening to all of you.
This is the 7th India-ASEAN summit, first one was held in 2002 at Phnom Penh, Cambodia. The summit was followed by two bilateral meetings with the Prime Minister of Thailand and Prime Minister of Cambodia. The 7th India-ASEAN summit was categorized by constructive exchange of views between the Prime Minister and his counterparts, Heads of state and Government from 10 ASEAN. The Secretary-General of ASEAN was also present at the meeting. It began by a welcome address by the Prime Minister of Thailand as the Chairman of the India-ASEAN Summit here in Hua Hin. Subsequently Prime Minister read out his statement.
The meeting essentially provided an opportunity to review India-ASEAN cooperation which, most of you are aware, has deepened in a variety of areas and over the last seven years has also expanded into new areas. The ASEAN leaders expressed appreciation for India’s Look East Policy. They particularly praised India’s increasing interaction across sectors over the last seven years, and how committed India was in enhancing its cooperation with the ASEAN countries.
The ASEAN leaders also praised India’s participation in the other regional fora like the ASEAN Regional Forum, BIMSTEC which comprises the countries that are the littoral states of the Bay of Bengal, and the Mekong-Ganga Cooperation. Most of them made a particular point regarding the fact that India’s engagement with the ASEAN contributes not only to bilateral economic and commercial development but also to the stability and peace in the region. There was particular recognition of India’s role and India’s position as a major economic power in the region.
There was also recognition of India’s contribution to the growth in trade. Specific mention was made by all the leaders, of India signing the India-ASEAN Free Trade Agreement in Goods especially in circumstances which currently characterize the world economy. The fact that India signed the trade in goods agreement despite the ongoing economic crisis was specifically emphasized by all the leaders. All the leaders then said that they would like to now move forward with the discussions and negotiations on the services and investment sectors so that the FTA is complete in all respects.
We signed with ASEAN a Partnership Programme for Peace, Progress and Shared Prosperity in 2004 at the time of the Vientiane Summit which was held in Laos. That programme has more or less come to end early this year, and a new programme is on the anvil for the period 2009 to 2015. Keeping that in mind our Prime Minister announced a series of initiatives, which was widely welcomed by all the leaders.
These initiatives arose basically out of the theme of the ASEAN Summit – of what I had mentioned in Delhi some of you may recall - about enhancing connectivity and empowering people. Arising from this, the Prime Minister announced a series of initiatives. The first was the establishment of an India-ASEAN Round Table comprising think tanks, policy-makers, scholars, media and business representatives to bridge the knowledge gap. The Round Table would provide necessary inputs to the respective Governments on future areas of cooperation.
Another was intensification of negotiations on Open Skies Policy between India and ASEAN so that people-to-people exchanges at all levels - whether it is business, tourism, youth exchange programmes, commencement of exchange of parliamentarians, which is a new idea that we are pursuing since last year, could really come into effect. Of course, people-to-people exchange programmes do not have to wait for the Open Skies Policy to come into effect.
We have also agreed to hold a specialized ASEAN Trade and Industry Exhibition in late 2010 or early 2011 to promote our cooperation in the commercial area, and enhanced cooperation in the agriculture sector with a view to meeting the challenges of food security. Food security was mentioned as a major challenge by many of the ASEAN leaders. There is a meeting of India-ASEAN Agriculture Ministers which is being scheduled for the first quarter of 2010, which should identify specific areas of cooperation including cooperation in extension services which is one of India’s strong points.
Cooperation in the application of space technologies like sharing of satellite data for management of natural disasters, launching of small satellites, scientific payloads for experiments in remote sensing and communication for space agencies, and most importantly space technology for academic institutions in ASEAN countries. This was a major point in the PM’s initiatives.
Keeping in mind the success achieved in the last Partnership Programme where we established the English Language Trainings Centres, Entrepreneurship Development Centres, some IT Centres in the Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar and Vietnam, we now go into the next stage for the period 2009 to 2015. In that context the ASEAN itself is developing an information and communication technologies master plan for the period 2010 to 2015. We have agreed to offer our services for the realization of this plan, and this was appreciated by all the leaders present.
In the same context we also offered to assist them in the creation of an E-Network in ASEAN which could ultimately be linked up with Indian institutions in diverse areas whether it is education, commerce, business, or whatever. To support all these initiatives, India’s readiness to allocate US$50 million was also conveyed to the leaders so that during the work plan, 2009-2015, these programmes can be implemented in cooperation with them.
One other point, 2012 would be the tenth anniversary of the first Summit India-ASEAN Summit held in 2002, and it is also the 20th anniversary of our initiation of India-ASEAN Sectoral Dialogue in 1992. So, India has offered to host the India-ASEAN Summit in the year 2012 in India at a suitable occasion. This was also very deeply appreciated by all the leaders who were present.
These were the major points in the India-ASEAN Summit. In his Concluding Statement, PM emphasized the fact that cooperation with ASEAN is an article of faith for India, and the success achieved so far has been a major factor in helping us decide what are the areas for future cooperation, some of which I have just now read out.
Earlier in the morning, sorry to go back a little, there was a meeting of ASEAN-India Economic Ministers, which was attended from the Indian side by the Commerce and Industries Minister. In this meeting they reviewed the progress of the services and investment negotiations under the India-ASEAN Comprehensive Economic Cooperation Agreement. Goods, is out of the way; now we have services and investment negotiations. Three rounds have been completed. Our Minister suggested that the negotiations on this should be concluded as early as possible. The ASEAN Economic Ministers also responded favourably to this suggestion.
The ASEAN Ministers also appreciated the need for an early agreement in this regard because it would then help in realizing some objectives, particularly from the point of view of liberalisation of the economy from the Indian side and the operation of the FTA in totality of goods, services, and investment. Vietnam signed the India-ASEAN trade in goods agreement as the last signatory during this meeting, so that all ten members of ASEAN are now on board on the Trade in Goods Agreement, so that its implementation can begin as agreed from 1st January, 2010.
In the two meetings that were held after the India-ASEAN Summit the meeting with Prime Minister of Thailand Mr. Abhisit Vejjajiva covered all issues on bilateral interaction and cooperation within EAS and ASEAN. Bilateral investment and enhancement of bilateral trade was also touched upon. India-Thailand trade has grown by six times over the last nine years. We have investments of just under a billion dollars in Thailand, and Thailand has got investments of just under half a billion dollars in India. They have it in agriculture, aquaculture, fisheries and other areas; our investments are in textiles, steel, carbon black and some chemicals, and other areas. The meeting recognized the need for exchange of high-level visits. Both sides expressed that these high-level visits should continue so that we can now think of new areas of cooperation including identifying new agreements, or new understanding on enhancing bilateral trade and investment.
In respect of Cambodia the visit of the Cambodian Prime Minister to India in December 2007 was recalled. Under the credit agreements that were singed at that time, two of the projects have been implemented. One more is under execution. Our commitment to enhance the infrastructure, particularly in the field of irrigation, water resource management and construction of transmission lines in Cambodia for electric power was emphasized by PM. We assured that the bilateral relations will continue to receive focus through projects on the one hand, through high-level visits, and capacity-building on the other. Presently we are training Cambodians under the ITEC programme in many areas, including industries, SME training, banking, audit, among others. We are also training Cambodians who go on peacekeeping operations.
They are presently in Sudan, Chad and Central African Republic. So, they come to India and get trained - it is the USI that gives the training on peacekeeping operations - and that has also been found successful and they were quite appreciative of the fact. The Archaeological Survey of India is doing a couple of projects in Cambodia and this cooperation was also favourably commented upon by both the leaders.
Overall, the afternoon’s events - the Summit and the two bilateral meetings - reiterated our closeness of relations and a certain basic understanding that now has come to mark our bilateral relations, our bilateral exchanges and a certain degree of confidence that has now emerged in the bilateral relations which now makes it easy for both sides to identify and to move into new areas as required with very little expenditure of time.
That is about all I have to say.
Question: Two questions. In any of these ASEAN-India meetings, was there a demand for pruning the negative list which is already there? Secondly, there is the ASEAN Chairman’s statement which says that there is an India-ASEAN Business Advisory Council to be formed. There is no mention about that in PM’s speech or anywhere else.
Secretary (East): The Business Advisory Council is actually an ASEAN suggestion to which we have agreed. It used to meet quite regularly but after the discussions on the FTA started, there were certain delays in getting all the business people together. But now it will begin again. So, that revival is more or less on the cards. As regards negative list, from what little I have gathered, as against India’s one list, ASEAN has ten lists. So, there has to be some degree of coordination. That is why I think some amount of delay is being encountered. But the desire of both sides is to move ahead but some amount of delay perhaps cannot be avoided.
Question: Has there been a rethink on the Dalai Lama’s visit to Arunachal Pradesh?
Official Spokesperson: I will interject here. As I said, and please bear with me, this interaction is limited to Prime Minister’s engagements post lunch.
Question: In the morning we did not take questions.
Official Spokesperson: In the morning we have already given you a perspective. Tomorrow there is a press conference of the Prime Minister. This interaction is limited to the interactions of the Prime Minister post-lunch. I am sorry.
Question: There is a very pressing reason for us to ask this question because there has been this confusion. One version has been given to us regarding Arunachal and Dalai Lama. There is another version going parallel given by the Chinese agencies. And then this creates confusion.
Official Spokesperson: Our version, we have shared with you. Certainly tomorrow when Prime Minister would be interacting with you he will also be happy to take questions. Question here please.
Question: Prime Minister has talked about the Nalanda University Project. Did it come up in the ASEAN-India meeting and what was the perception and feedback of the ASEAN leaders?
Secretary (East): The ASEAN leaders favourably commented on the revival of the Nalanda University. But all of them also said that Nalanda University is coming under the umbrella of the East Asia Summit in which ASEAN themselves are members, but in order to convey their support they did mention it in their statements. But it will basically be a part of an East Asia Summit initiative because all sixteen countries are involved.
Question: I have a query on the Open Skies Policy. We already have our Open Skies Policy in force in India. What exactly is the subject of negotiation or intensified negotiation?
Secretary (East): The ASEAN countries themselves are negotiating an Open Skies Policy for implementation in the year 2010. We have a kind of a qualified Open Skies Policy with ASEAN already. They can fly to tourist sites; they can fly to capital cities: no restrictions and all. The idea of this intensification of negotiations is that we would like to continue our negotiations with ASEAN in parallel with their own so that when their negotiations are complete, when they have their open skies policy, our position is also ready, and we are not losing any time at that particular moment so that we can also then go ahead and decide on this open skies policy with ASEAN which would be based on their own 2010 or whatever agreement that they reach. But we go on in parallel. The idea is not to lose time. That is it.
Question: What is being negotiated for?
Secretary (East): To increase the number of flights between the two regions with the countries concerned. Basically right now the countries that are deriving advantage out of this qualified open skies policy are Singapore, Thailand, and to a certain extent Malaysia. But after this economic downturn some amount of correction has come about and the number of flights has been rationalised between India and ASEAN. Keeping this in mind the negotiations are continuing, but we have to wait till the 2010 for reaching agreement within ASEAN, so that we are ready with whatever changes are there, then we can immediately continue with. The idea is to save time.
Question: Any timelines as to when the FTA in services and investments will be signed, and what is really holding it back because a number of negotiations have already taken place?
Secretary (East): We have had only three rounds of negotiations so far and certain amount of lists and materials and certain requirements both in terms of services and investment have been exchanged. So, it is difficult to give a timeline right now. These have just begun. But the effort would be to conclude it as early as possible. Now that the goods thing has been concluded it gives us a base, an understanding, a framework on which we can move forward on the services.
Question: Can you enlighten us about the status of the Trilateral Highway Project?
Secretary (East): The Trilateral Highway Project passes through - as you would know - India, Thailand and Myanmar. Thailand has offered to construct a certain portion inside Myanmar so that the connectivity at the border regions can be made a little earlier than what has been planned. This offer is under examination in Myanmar. As far as we are concerned our connection to Myanmar is reasonably okay. Once we enter Myanmar, it should basically end up in Bangkok via Mandalay and Yangon and then coming down.
Question: When do you propose to complete the project?
Secretary (East): It is difficult to say right now because it has been in the works for some time. It is difficult to guess right now.
Question: There is a proposal about connecting the old and modern shipping ports. I find there is some mention about it in the Prime Minister’s speech. What is the idea of that? What is it about the old ports?
Secretary (East): It is like this. In the 10th to 12th centuries India did trade with South-East Asian countries, and some of the Indian traders guilds were established even in East Asia. So, an effort would be made to commemorate that during the 2012 event by which the ships can touch those ports, which were trading ports in the olden days, and also the modern ports that must be near those old ports wherever these exist. Historical records exist as to where the old ports were and the new ports are at places where we know they exist. So, a kind of a voyage is being planned.
Question: Regarding the FTA in goods there are some strong protests from some farmers’ organisations and political parties in India. Has any of these concerns been mentioned in the discussions between the ASEAN countries today?
Secretary (East): This is a matter that is entirely internal to our country. If I am not mistaken, a Group of Ministers has been set up to look into this particular problem. But it is a problem entirely internal to us at present.
Question: You mentioned that we have signed this agreement with Vietnam and Vietnam becomes the tenth country and this completes the FTA in goods. The demand from Vietnam was that it should be granted what is called the market economy status. Has India granted that status to Vietnam?
Secretary (East): Yes. The Vietnamese Prime Minister also thanked our Prime Minister for this gesture that India is granting Vietnam a market economy status.
Question: Has it happened today or is it going to happen?
Secretary (East): The decision was taken I think last week.
Official Spokesperson: Thank you.
Hua Hin (Thailand )
October 24, 2009