Press Release

Media Briefing by Foreign Secretary Mr. Shivshankar Menon in Colombo during the 15th SAARC Summit  (Colombo; August 1, 2008)

Official Spokesperson: Welcome to the Media Centre. We have with us the Foreign Secretary who will brief you on various issues of interest and there will be time for a few questions.

Foreign Secretary: What I would like to do is to first read to you the statement by the Prime Minister on the IAEA Board of Governors approving India Specific Safeguards Agreement by consensus earlier today. And then I thought I would brief you what happened today in the SAARC Summit and then I would be happy to answer your questions.

“I am delighted to hear that the IAEA Board of Governors has decided today by consensus to approve the India Specific Safeguards Agreement. This is an important day for India, and for our civil nuclear initiative for the resumption of India’s cooperation with our friends abroad.

The civil nuclear initiative is good for India and good for the world. As we move forward towards our goal of sustainable development and energy security, the peaceful uses of atomic energy will play an increasingly important role.

I am grateful to the members of the IAEA Board of Governors, to our partners and friends abroad, and in particular, to the USA, for making this important step in the IAEA possible.

The DG of the IAEA, Dr. El Baradei, has played a significant role and we look forward to working with him and his Agency in implementing this agreement.

I am deeply appreciative of the historic significance of this milestone in our cooperation with the IAEA and the international community in peaceful uses of atomic energy.”

We will have copies of this distributed to you as well.

On the SAARC meetings, as you know, the Council of Ministers met yesterday and completed its work and was preceded by the meeting of the Foreign Secretaries in the SAARC Standing Committee. Our primary function in the Standing Committee and in the Council of Ministers is to prepare for the Summit which will open tomorrow morning and conclude day after a retreat by the Heads of State or Government day after tomorrow. So, what we did in the Standing Committee and subsequently in the Council of Ministers will now go up to the Summit meeting to the Heads for their consideration. We have worked on the Declaration which is traditional in such cases. We have also dealt with certain topics which were rather urgent significance to the member States of SAARC. One was food security, which is a subject which affects us all in SAARC not only because of the rising prices of food which affects many of us but also because we do feel that the region has the potential in terms of resource endowment to do much better by way of feeding itself and also feeding the rest of the world. The other issue which we were to consider was the guidelines for the cooperation with and participation by Observers of SAARC. As you know over the last few years there has been a great deal of international interest in being associated with SAARC. There are two additional States who have applied for Observer status whose applications are being considered at this Summit. So, Myanmar and Australia, once their applications are approved, there will be 9 observers actually in SAARC. So, we have been asked by the last Council of Ministers, in the Standing Committee to prepare guidelines how we will cooperate with the Observers. So that part of the work we have been doing. In the meantime, SAARC processes have resulted also in significant agreements which will be finalized and signed during the Summit.

One is the Charter and the bye-laws of the SAARC Development Fund which you would remember we operationalised before we had actually finished doing the Charter. The other that we have been discussing is the Convention on Mutual Legal Assistance in Criminal Matters. We are also considering setting up a SAARC Regional Standards Organization so that we harmonize our standards through the region. This would be a concrete contribution to making it easier to produce goods which can then go through and sold in the entire region. And, Afghanistan is acceding to SAFTA at this Summit. So, the other member states of SAFTA accept Afghanistan and then Afghanistan accedes to SAFTA. So, there are likely to be four Agreements.

During the year, during the Economic Ministers meetings, it is also agreed to now start discussing how to extend SAFTA to services. SAFTA so far covers trade in goods. But, there is a fair amount of trade in services and this is going to get more and more important as we move into the tertiary sector as our economies get more sophisticated. So, you would notice that we are now looking at the relatively concrete steps which would help us to increase regional economic integration and to build up ties – economic and other ties – between us. So, we are looking forward to this Summit carrying forward our attempt to bring SAARC from the declaratory phase to a state of actual implementation and action. These are some of the issues that we have been considering in the formal meetings. I don’t want to get ahead of myself. You know the Summit will consider this - the Heads will see which bits they are comfortable with and which bits they will approve. So, we will probably brief you again either at the end of tomorrow or possibly day after about the actual outcomes of the Summit. But I thought I will give you a preview of the sorts of issues that we are looking at.

In terms of the bilateral meetings that the External Affairs Minister has been having, he met yesterday with the Foreign Ministers of Pakistan, Bangladesh, Nepal and today he met with the Foreign Minister of the Maldives and also called on Nepalese Prime Minster Koirala this morning. With the Foreign Minister of Pakistan, I don’t think I need to go over the issues, you know they had a frank and candid discussion and covered all the issues in our relationship but they will both be reporting to the Prime Ministers about their discussions. This is an ongoing conversation, as you know because these are issues which we need to address jointly and we will brief in detail about this after the Prime Minister’s meeting on the 2nd (August) tomorrow.

With the Foreign Affairs Advisor of the Caretaker Government in Bangladesh, EAM and the Foreign Affairs Advisor reviewed bilateral relationship, expressed satisfaction at the various steps that have been taken over the last years to improve relationship. On the economic side, we have taken some very significant measures to open up trade, duty free access and they also reviewed our cooperation in international fora where we have worked together well. The Bangladesh Foreign Affairs Advisor also briefed EAM about the internal situation in Bangladesh and the regime’s stance to move towards elections later this year. They will announce the schedule, I think they will hold the elections in December.

In the evening yesterday, in the meeting with the Nepalese Finance Minister who is representing Nepal at the Council of Ministers, EAM and Mr. Mahat both discussed the nature of our relationship which, as you know, is very close, we have an open border, we have free trade between the two countries. Mr. Mahat described the political transition that Nepal is going through after the elections and this was the subject which was also discussed between EAM and Prime Minister Koirala earlier today, in the morning when he called on Prime Minister Koirala. Later in the evening yesterday, EAM also met with the Sri Lankan Foreign Minister Mr. Bogollagama where again they covered the bilateral relationship, the need to strengthen economic ties to build on the FTA that we brought into effect in 2000. EAM mentioned the issue of fishermen which has been a difficult issue in the recent past and both sides agreed that they would try and find steps, concrete steps, that we could take to deal with this humanitarian problem. They both also discussed the SAARC and how we expect it to be to make major progress in moving SAARC forward.

In his meeting with the Foreign Minister of Maldives, the Foreign Minister of Maldives briefed the EAM on domestic developments in the Maldives where there is a transition to a new Constitution and Presidential elections later this year. EAM also invited his counterpart to visit India very soon in the near future. We have an absolutely trouble-free relationship between India and Maldives and both sides expressed satisfaction at that.

Today afternoon, Prime Minister after his arrival here, called on President Rajapakse in his office this afternoon where PM expressed his conviction that in South Asia our destinies are inter-linked and that our prosperity is also inter-linked. The prosperity of one would need the prosperity of others to buttress it. We would all benefit from a rising tide. They discussed various issued in our bilateral relationship, about deepening economic cooperation as well. PM also mentioned the fishermen issue which will be dealt with in practical ways so that we can minimize the hardship and the difficulties that are faced by the fishermen. Both sides expressed satisfaction at the state of the relationship and said that they would be working to try to carry this forward. I think that is all I have for you at this moment but I would be happy to answer any questions which you might have.

Question: Now that India has crossed this important milestone in the IAEA, how difficult is the next step at the NSG…..
Foreign Secretary: Well, I can only say that we will give it our best effort just as we did at each stage of this process. I think we are convinced that what we are doing is, as Prime Minister has said good for India, good for the world. Therefore, we will do our best to see that we move through the next steps in the future.

Question: What constitutes clean exemption at NSG…..unconditional exemption?

Foreign Secretary: I think we have made it clear that what we would expect in order to move forward is a clean, unconditional exemption. I don’t want to get into, you know, what would constitute clean, whether this clean means any other word which you might find. But, we have been consistent in saying this right through. Quite frankly, for us, the exemption is important because this would enable us to resume full civil nuclear cooperation with the rest of the world, with members of the NSG and we are looking forward to that prospect.

Question: ….the issue of terrorism is being talked about for the past one week…did it come up in your discussions….(inaudible)…
Foreign Secretary: Well, there was a discussion on terrorism both in the Standing Committee and in the Council of Ministers and many of us, India included Sri Lanka and other members also stressed the importance of fighting terrorism and taking concrete steps to deal with terrorism and also came up in our bilateral meetings, not surprisingly and this is certainly one of the issues which for us is a very important part of the Summit because we want to carry the SAARC’s Economic and Social agenda forward and to continue the kinds of rates of growth and progress that we have seen in South Asia in recent years which have been quite high, which are part really of the Asian resurgence, if we want to continue that, it is essential that we managed to do this in an atmosphere free of violence where there is peace and tranquility and the greatest threat to many of our societies today is really from terrorism. So, it is natural that it did come up, how it will be reflected at the end of the Summit, I think it is little too early to say, we are still working on it. I would expect some reference to it in the Declaration and certainly in our bilateral conversations as well.

You mentioned the Convention on terrorism which we have tabled in the United Nations. We naturally spoke to the other members and ask their support and many of them did and we are looking forward to carrying that effort forward in the United Nations during this General Assembly.

Question: … (inaudible)…
Foreign Secretary: We still do not have the international convention in the UN yet. That has not yet been agreed upon. We are still working on it. We have proposed it a long time ago. Certainly, there is a SAARC Convention on terrorism which was signed several years ago and in addition there is an Additional Protocol to that Convention on stopping financing of terrorism from 2004. But the specific issues that you mentioned, we will deal with it under the existing law, we have a standing request for the extradition of Prabhakaran. With Pakistan, we have made it clear what sort of action by Pakistan we are looking for. We have a joint anti-terrorism mechanism where we raise these issues and where we discuss and try to do what we can. So, it is a combination of steps actually that we need to take. We will work with the existing law and we will try to improve the law whether it is a international convention in the UN, we will try and see whether we could do anything additional within SAARC or even in terms of legislation and we will see how we can address this specific problem that you have mentioned.  

Question: Germany has called a meeting of the NSG in Vienna. Can you confirm that and after that what are the next steps?
Foreign Secretary: I can’t confirm because we are not NSG members. So nobody sends us the notice. But the fact is yes we hear from the NSG members that a plenary meeting of the NSG has been called on 21st/22nd of August. We are not in the room, by the way, we are not members of the NSG, so, that is why I don’t want to confirm it formally. But, the fact is, yes, we believe a meeting has been called and that they will consider the exemption for India. We will work with the NSG members. We have been in touch with them now for some time, as you know and we will work with them to try and get a clean, unconditional exemption. Thereafter, once the NSG clears we look forward to entering into the specific detailed agreements that we will need to do with individual partner countries whether they are inter-governmental agreements like the 123 with the US which needs US domestic processes to be complete which includes Congress or whether there are inter-governmental agreements with other States who are willing to work with us in this area. And then, after that, the next step is really the actual contracts for material, equipment, reactors whatever. So, there is a fair amount of detailing still to be done in this process before you actually come to the stage of placing a commercial order and shipping it. What we are doing here is creating the international enabling environment within which such transfers can take place. One big step has been taken today in having a Safeguards Agreement which is an umbrella agreement into which we can bring various arrangements that we will enter into with our partners. The NSG would be the next big step.  

Question: Is the meeting in Vienna?
Foreign Secretary: I am not sure. I will check and let you know.

Question: The Pakistan Foreign Minister said that they will give a detailed statement after the meeting of the Prime Ministers of the two countries…
Foreign Secretary: I am sure they will speak in detail so will we….. in our normal tradition of transparency, openness, frankness, friendliness.

Question: During Prime Minister’s meeting yesterday with Mr. Rajapakse, was there any discussion on the Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement and if so, what did Mr. Rajapakse say? And the PM was also supposed to meet Tamil leaders….
Foreign Secretary: He is doing so right now actually. He is meeting with several political parties and representatives at this moment. But I do not want to brief you on some event that is going on at the same time as this briefing. We will have to naturally work our way through whatever worries and so on there are about the CEPA. You know, this is part of a process I think of bringing an agreement through, if you look at the FTA for instance, it took us once we had done the negotiations but it also took us a year or two to actually digest what it meant for ourselves. So, I think we are really at that stage of needing to look through it, talk about it, see how it works in practice and then when we are both comfortable because any such agreement can only work if both sides are equally comfortable. But, at the leadership level it is clear both sides wanted to do it, saw it as useful, saw it as beneficial, and look forward to doing it. 

Question: What is the kind of evidence do we have on the Kabul blast?
Foreign Secretary: We are still at the stage of investigation and at this stage, I have nothing further to tell you than what I told you on 21st of July in New Delhi about what we have. It is a jigsaw puzzle, we have some of the pieces, the pieces that we have I told you where it leads. When we have more to share with you, we will.

Question: As of today, what would you describe as the state of the Indo-Pak dialogue…(inaudible)…after the meeting of the two Foreign Ministers.
Foreign Secretary: If you ask me to describe the state of the dialogue, it is in a place where it has been for the last four years because we face a situation where things have happened in the recently which were unfortunate and which quite frankly have affected the dialogue. So, that is why we are talking to Pakistan, that is why we are carrying on this conversation, I said to you this is an ongoing process. I am afraid I have to run. Thank you, Thank you very much.

(Concluded)

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