Wednesday, April 16, 2008

The President, Smt. Pratibha Devisingh Patil addressing the media on board on the way to Lisbon, Portugal during her three Nation Latin America tour on April 12, 2008. The Minister for New and Renewable Energy, Shri Vilas Muttemwar is also seen.


Briefing by Secretary (West) Shri Nalin Surie on Rashtrapatiji’s forthcoming state visit to Brazil, Mexico and Chile
11/04/2008


11th April 2008Official Spokesperson (Shri Navtej Sarna): Good afternoon everybody. We welcome here Shri Nalin Surie, Secretary (West) in the External Affairs Ministry to brief you on the forthcoming visit of the President to Brazil, Mexico and Chile. I think most of the people present here are part of the travelling press. So, I will request you to identify yourself after the Secretary has made his opening remarks if you have any questions and we will take them.Secretary (West) (Shri Nalin Surie): Thank you Navtej and thank you all for coming this afternoon. I have a short statement which I thought I will share with you and then if you have any questions I would be happy to answer them. For those of you who are traveling with us, we will see a lot of each other. I hope we can satisfy your demands and curiosity as we go along. Rashtrapatiji is paying her first State Visit abroad since assuming office last July to Brazil, Mexico and Chile. These visits are in response to invitations from the Presidents of these three very friendly countries. The Hon’ble President will be received with State honours in all three countries. Her programme is a busy one and she will, in addition to meetings with her counterparts, address the Parliaments in Brazil & Mexico, interact with members of the judiciary, the Indian community and address business meetings. An Indian business delegation will be accompanying the Hon’ble President to all three countries.
The fact that the Hon’ble President has chosen to pay her first State Visit to Latin America is reflective of the importance that India attaches to further strengthening its partnerships with countries of that dynamic continent. In the past, the problems of connectivity have acted as an obstacle to greater interaction between India and Latin America. However, while physical connectivity remains an impediment, trade and economic interaction is growing rapidly. This is not only because of the greater global interest and outreach of Indian public and private sector companies but also because of the new dynamics of South-South cooperation.India’s relations with all the three countries that are being visited have been dynamically developing over the last few years.Brazil is the largest country in Latin America and our biggest trade partner. India and Brazil have entered into a Strategic Partnership. We are also working together in IBSA and are both among the outreach countries that are associated with the G-8. President Lula visited India in June 2007 and was the Chief Guest at India’s Republic Day in January, 2004. Prime Minister Manmohan Singh had visited Brazil in September, 2006.Mexico is the largest trading country in Latin America and the second largest country in the continent. Mexico, like India and Brazil, is one of the outreach countries associated with the G-8.
You will all recall that President Calderon of Mexico paid a State Visit to India in September last. This was his first State Visit to Asia after having assumed the Presidency of Mexico. During his visit, India and Mexico entered into a Privileged Partnership. Mexico is home to ancient civilizations and we have had fruitful interaction in the past. Our green revolution of the 1960s benefited from the development of agricultural research in that country. The economic underpinning of our relationship is evolving well.Chile-India trade relations predate our independence. Today Chile is one of the most open and liberal economies in the region. Our relations have been developing particularly well since the milestone visit of President Ricardo Lagos in January, 2005. India has a preferential trade arrangement with Chile and our trade and economic relations are growing rapidly.Rashtrapatiji’s visit to Latin America will cover three of our most important partners in the region. All three are flourishing democracies, developing countries and countries with which our interaction is growing rapidly. Apart from our bilateral relations, we also share similar world views and positions on critical issues before the international community today, such as climate change, the Doha Development Round, the fight against terrorism, reform of the United Nations and the need for greater South-South cooperation.In all three countries we expect to sign a number of agreements.Rashtrapatiji’s visit to Brazil, Mexico and Chile is a reflection of government’s ongoing efforts to strengthen and consolidate relations with our traditional partners all over the globe. Her visit is expected to provide further momentum to the ongoing development and diversification of relations with all three countries. Thank you.
Question: What are our trade figures with these three countries?Secretary (West): With Brazil our trade last year was $ 3.2 billion, with Mexico it was about $ 2 billion and with Chile about $ 2.4 billion. With Brazil, as you know, we have a trade target of $ 10 billion by 2010 and with Mexico $ 5 billion by 2010. These were targets agreed to when the two Presidents were in India last year.Question: Our involvement with Africa has begun producing results. The Conclave and the Summit were two outstanding examples of cooperation between India and Africa and now the trade has crossed $ 30 billion and slated to reach finally $ 50 billion by the time next Summit takes place in Africa. Are we thinking of doing a similar thing with Latin America, namely conclaves, India and South America summits of the kind we have just concluded?Secretary (West): We already have conclaves with Latin America. As I mentioned in my opening remarks, the President will be accompanied by business delegations to all three countries. This is not the normal tendency, as you know, but we are now bringing a change into that. We have a growing partnership with Latin America. How it evolves, we will see. But the determination to interact much more with Latin America is very clearly there.
Question: Can you give us an idea of the MoUs that we have and the broad subjects?Secretary (West): I do not want to get into details yet because these are under the process of approvals. On the flight, I should be able to be more definitive. But we will sign a minimum of two agreements with each country, maybe more than two in a couple of countries. But I do not want to go into sectors right now because they are awaiting formal approvals. There was a Cabinet meeting today. I do not know finally what was approved and what was not. I cannot presume Cabinet approves. Similarly on the other side they are awaiting approvals. But we expect to sign at least two agreements in each country, probably more than two with at least two countries. But I must also clarify that with all these countries it is not that we are starting anew. We have ongoing agreements with most of these countries. So, whatever we are adding is diversification of what we have. Question: Specifically could you tell us which fields these agreements are going to be signed?
Secretary (West): I just reacted to that. These are under approval. I do not want to be definitive right now because till both sides have their final approvals we do not want to tell you something which we may have to back out on afterwards. Question: I would like to take you back to what Venkat asked. Is there a so-called institutionalized mechanism in the pipeline in the works, for an India-Latin America summit?Secretary (West): As I said to you, this is a relationship which is evolving. I cannot answer that question because I do not have an answer to give you. We are redefining and reinvigorating our partnership with all the Latin American countries. We will see where it takes us. Question: Is it in the works?Secretary (West): I am not at liberty to answer that question frankly.Question: Will the defence PSU officials be also a part of the delegation?Secretary (West): Not as far as I know. No, they are not in the list which we have.Question: How big is the business delegation? Is there any Minister accompanying the President?
Secretary (West): Yes, there will be a Minister accompanying the President. There will also be several Members of Parliament accompanying the President. I think Minister Muttemwar is accompanying the President. I am not very clear on the names of Members of Parliament but there were three of them. We will give you the names. Question: How big is the business delegation?Secretary (West): I will just try and give you a name. We have a very interesting development this time. Both Brazil and Mexico will also have a SEWA complement. But in Chile we have, excluding the CII people, eleven business persons; in Brazil we have a similar number; and in Mexico we have about the same number.Question: A couple of days ago a far-reaching agreement was signed in Caracas, Venezuela between Minister Deora and Venezuela for joint venture in oil exploitation. How does the Indian Government see this agreement and the prospect of having more agreements in this field with Venezuela? How do you see it?
Secretary (West): This is not the first agreement we have with Venezuela in the oil sector. Our relationship with Venezuela and with other countries of Latin America in so far as hydrocarbons are concerned is an old one. We have arrangements with many countries – Venezuela, Brazil, Columbia, Peru, etc. It is not new. So, what Mr. Deora signed is another agreement as part of ongoing arrangements with Venezuela. We also have, for instance, Reliance has been buying oil from Mexico for many years. It is not a new relationship. It is an old relationship as far as this sector is concerned.Official Spokesperson: If I may add, there was a specific Press Release issued on that two days ago which you can take.Question: You mentioned about the business delegation. I just want to know what broad sectors this …Secretary (West): As far as Chile is concerned, we have, for instance, Essar Steel, Bajaj Auto, UP Hotels, Jindal Steel, SEWA, NIIT, etc. We have a very good spread of the IT companies already in almost all the Latin American countries. In Brazil again, it is Bajaj Autos, UP Hotels, United Phosphorous, Ruchi Soya, Aditya Birla Group, Essar Steel, Mehtas Intra Limited, SEWA, Raj Industries. In Mexico, we have by and large the same group as we have in Brazil. In Mexico, we also have the CII participating in the India-Mexico follow-up of the WEF on Latin America, which is special India-Mexico follow-up, which is being done by Pro-Mexico which is the trade body of the Mexican Government. Question: Do we have any figures about our total investment in South America and the Indian companies investing in South America? In Africa now we have 30 billion dollars and also the Mittals and the Tatas and a lot of them. Is there any figure which we can use?
Secretary (West): We have several. I can tell you which companies are doing what. Companies are not really forthcoming on the precise investments which they make. Let me give you an example. Let us take Brazil. We have TCS, the Cellofarm, Zidus Cadilla, Glenmarc, Torrent, BEML, Mahindras, IRCON, Vijay Pharmaceuticals, Vijay Electricals, Pidilite, Bajaj, Hindustan, Rajshri, Renuka Sugars, Raj Industries. Brazilian investments in India are Marco Polo and Tata Motors. The Delhi Buses which you see are all part of this new joint venture. Geddof has invested, the Brazilian steel firm. CVRD has set up an office in India. Mexico, for instance, we have the huge Lakshmi Mittal investment, we have Videocon, we have Ranbaxy and Claris Life Sciences, Dr. Reddy’s, NIIT, Sasken Communications, TCS, Infosys, Aditya Birla Group, Reliance - they are all there. In Chile, it is relatively less because Chile is also a smaller market as you know. With Chile, the focus basically is on information technology right now. But we have Indian companies which are looking at mining in Chile now. So, there is a fair amount of investment going into all three countries. More important is a lot of employment generation is being done by our companies in these countries. Official Spokesperson: Thank you.
(Concluded)
Press Briefings
Ministry of External Affairs, New Delhi

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