'Enchanced Partnership'

MEA Briefing on UK Prime Minister’s Visit to India

Vishnu Prakash, Official Spokesperson, MEA: My colleague Joint Secretary (Europe West) Mr. Seetharam and I will endeavour to give you a perspective on the very important state visit of the Rt Hon. David Cameron, the Prime Minister of UK, who is currently visiting India.

He arrived last night at Bangalore and today in the evening he would be reaching New Delhi. He leads a very high-level delegation. In fact, in recent memory, a delegation at this scale from UK has not been to India. His delegation includes a number of his Cabinet colleagues including British Foreign Minister; Chancellor of the Exchequer; Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills; Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport; Minister of State for Universities and Science; National Security Advisor; Vice-Chancellors of a number of key universities; a number of CEOs of leading business houses in UK; senior officials; and others.

Let me quickly take you through the programme. As I said, he arrived last evening. Today he would be meeting with the Governor of Karnataka; visiting Infosys and Hindustan Aeronautics Limited. Later in the evening he would be arriving at New Delhi. Tomorrow there would be a ceremonial welcome by Prime Minister at Rashtrapati Bhavan. There would be a call on him by the External Affairs Minister Shri S.M. Krishna; a meeting with Chairperson of UPA Shrimati Sonia Gandhi. He would be calling on Rashtrapatiji and Hon’ble Vice-President and meeting with the Leader of Opposition Shrimati Sushma Swaraj.

In the afternoon tomorrow there will be a business luncheon which will be organized by the three apex business chambers in India for the delegation including the CEOs that are accompanying the Prime Minister. Tomorrow evening he holds delegation-level talks with the Prime Minister. There would also be a joint media interaction that is slated around 1930 hours. The two Prime Ministers would have an interaction with the UK business delegation that is accompanying the Prime Minister.

Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh will be assisted by our External Affairs Minister in the talks; Commerce and Industry Minister; Minister of Road Transport and Highways; Minister for Human Resource Development; Minister of State for External Affairs Shrimati Preneet Kaur; Principal Secretary to Prime Minister; National Security Advisor; Foreign Secretary Smt. Nirupama Rao, a number of other senior officials and of course our High Commissioner to London.

Prime Minister Cameron visited India in October 2006 as the Leader of Opposition, when he had a number of very useful interactions including a meeting with the Prime Minister of India. It is indeed significant that within weeks of assuming office he is paying a state visit to India which is reflective of the importance that both sides attach to this vital relationship. The two Prime Ministers also had a very good meeting at Toronto on the sidelines of the G20 Summit on the 26th of June.

India enjoys multifaceted relations with UK which have intensified in the recent years. During the visit of Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh to UK in 2004 it was decided to elevate our relations to the level of a strategic partnership. There has been no looking back. Regular high-level exchanges have become a hallmark of our ties. To just give an example, last year in 2009 the two Prime Ministers had four meetings and had a number of telephonic conversations.

President of India paid a state visit to UK in October 2009 which gave a very useful momentum to our bilateral ties. The series of meetings that she had also included a call on her by present Prime Minister David Cameron, who was then the Leader of Opposition. I would like to say that our vibrant ties encompass a variety of sectors of mutual interest including trade and investment, human resource development, energy, high technology, science and technology, tourism, culture, defence, counterterrorism and the others.

UK is one of our major trading partners. Our bilateral trade, which was about 3.6 billion dollars equivalent in 2003-04, has since surged to over $ 12.8 billion last year in 2008-09. UK is also the fourth largest investor in India. According to my figures, the cumulative FDI equity inflows have been of the order of close to six billion dollars. By the same token, recognizing that UK is an attractive investment destination, Indian companies have been actively investing in UK. In fact, Indian companies have become the second largest investor in London. And close to 600 Indian companies are already based in UK of which close to half are in London.

In recognition of the tremendous potential, an India-UK Joint Economic and Trade Committee (JETCO) was set up at the level of Commerce Ministers, in 2005. It has since emerged as a very useful mechanism to impart more content and depth to our economic and trade ties. The sixth JETCO meeting was held in London in February this year.

UK also plays host to over 30,000 Indian students who go to UK for higher education. This is the second biggest foreign student body in UK. Again to give our cooperation in the HRD sector, which is a very vital area of cooperation, a boost an India-UK Education Forum at a Ministerial level has been established. The second meeting of the Forum, which was co-chaired by our Minister of HRD from the Indian side, was held in London earlier this year in January. The interaction has thrown up a number of useful ideas and initiatives which the two sides are actively working on.

Similarly, tourism has now emerged as an important area of cooperation. We have close to 130 weekly flights connecting cities between the two countries and ferrying more than a million tourists in both directions. Defence sector is also an important area of cooperation, with regular bilateral visits, training courses and other contacts.

We have a sizeable Indian community of close to two million in the UK, which comprises of almost three per cent of the population of UK. The community is doing well economically, politically and is well assimilated. Presently there are eight Members of Parliament in the House of Commons, and 22 Peers in the House of Lords.

I would like to note that UK has been steadfast in its support for India’s candidature of permanent membership of the UN Security Council. It has also been a valuable interlocutor for us at a number of international fora including the G20, EU, Climate Change talks, and so on.

The two Prime Ministers are expected to hold wide-ranging discussions on bilateral, regional and multilateral matters of common interest. The visit is expected to give a further fillip, further boost to our robust and multifaceted bilateral relations.

Thank you. My colleague and I will be happy to take a few questions pertaining to the visit of the Rt Hon. David Cameron.

Question: We saw in January at the Kabul Conference where India’s position was not taken as seriously by Britain regarding its role in Afghanistan. Now with this visit will you take the opportunity to raise the issue of Afghanistan perhaps looking at a more meaningful role for India?

Vishnu Prakash: As I said, UK is a very valuable interlocutor of India. I did mention that during the visit, especially the delegation-level talks between the two Prime Ministers, we expect a whole range of bilateral, regional and multilateral issues of common interest to be discussed. What actually would be discussed, I do not know and I cannot speculate.

Question: I just wanted to know what are the agreements – I know most of them might be in discussion stage at this point – that are expected, in what areas.

T.P. Seetharam, Joint Secretary (Europe West): In Delhi the only agreement, or rather the Memorandum of Understanding that is to be signed is on culture. You will be surprised to know that after all these years we do not have a cultural agreement with UK. So, for the first time we will have a Memorandum of Understanding on cooperation in areas of culture that will be signed in New Delhi after the talks.

Question: Would it be possible for you to give a little more detail about what the MoU on culture might actually involve. I understand that you are going to have one. What would that mean? Secondly, I understand that you do not want to go into details or speculate but there is a very wide divergence between the Indian position on Taliban and the UK, US and other European states’ position. Similarly there is a wide gap in US and Indian positions. Can you tell us whether both positions will converge perhaps during the talks today?

T.P. Seetharam: On culture, I believe immediately after the signing of the agreement there will be a joint press interaction. So, details of the agreement would be shared with the media as soon as it is signed. But as you know, it is in the nature of these agreements that there will be sharing of information, organizing events in each other’s countries, exchange of scholars, organizing seminars, exhibitions, performing events. So, it is in that nature a broad cultural cooperation agreement. The specifics will be made available as soon as it is signed.

Vishnu Prakash:  I can spell out for you the Indian position and thinking on this issue. Government of India is supportive of the initiative of the elected Government of Afghanistan to integrate such elements into the national mainstream which abjure violence, abide by the Constitution of Afghanistan, and are respectful of the economic and political gains that Afghanistan has made in the past several years. We also are of the view that any such initiative should be Afghan-led and Afghan-driven. That is our position on Afghanistan, on this issue in particular which is well-documented and which has been unequivocally put across to our interlocutors. Just a word on our role in Afghanistan - which you are aware of perhaps, but let me briefly touch upon that - we are actively engaged in the reconstruction, development and providing economic assistance to our friends in Afghanistan in keeping with the wishes of the friendly people of Afghanistan, of the Government of Afghanistan. And till this date India’s assistance has been of the order of about 1.3 billion dollars. So, that is our position on this issue.

Question: Visas have been a huge issue. You said that you have got 30,000 Indian students in UK, and a lot of Indian business leaders have raised the issue when they were in London. What is the position now? Does the Government intend to discuss it?

T.P. Seetharam: As you would be aware, there have been reports that the Government of the United Kingdom proposes to restrict non-EU emigration to UK. So, naturally this is an issue related to movement of people and it is possible that such an issue would be among the various items that could come up. Exactly how it would be taken up or what would be discussed, I am not able to comment on.

Question: Britain is giving millions of dollars in aid to Pakistan. The recent intelligence leaks have revealed for the first time the stunning scale of ISI’s involvement in Pakistan. Are we going to ask the British Prime Minister …(Inaudible)… allegation about the need for some sort of monitoring mechanism of their aid to Pakistan? Secondly, Britain has been tom-toming this visit as forging a special relationship. What is there in it for us? From India’s point of view what is so special about this visit apart from the huge delegation?

Vishnu Prakash: As to your first question, we have always maintained and we believe that a stable, secure and prosperous Pakistan is in India’s interest. We have no difficulty, obviously stemming from that, with economic assistance or cooperation being extended to Pakistan by any country. As far as the issue of WikiLeaks is concerned, my response is already on the website and I am sure you have seen that.

T.P. Seetharam: Yes, we have naturally seen reports and are aware of the intention of the Government of UK to have a ‘new special relationship’ with India. This was actually a term used when Mr. David Cameron had come to India earlier. Subsequently this also became part of the coalition document in UK. There has also been talk of ‘enhanced partnership’ with India. I guess the discussions will naturally throw light on what these terms mean. So, we will have to wait till tomorrow for the joint press interaction by the two Prime Ministers. Some of you would have already seen perhaps an article written by the Rt Hon. David Cameron in one of the Indian newspapers today which also gives some idea of his views on these aspects.

Question: I want to share with you the case of the passenger plane crash in Islamabad and would like to know if there are any Indians on the flight, if the High Commission is aware of it, and if the manifest and the names of passengers can be given to us. That is one thing. The second thing is, Sir, you would have seen what Keith Vaz had to say about the Kohinoor. Is that something either country is looking at?

T.P. Seetharam: On the Kohinoor, I think it is something which has been going on for a long time. I believe the ASI is in the process of compiling a large number of cultural items of a similar nature. This is a process that is ongoing and not necessarily specific to this particular visit.

Vishnu Prakash: As to your first question, we will ascertain the facts and will come back to you.

Question: You mentioned that India and UK are looking to broaden their defence cooperation. Is there any defence deal going to be signed? There have been reports of the deal being signed when the Prime Minister is here? Can you give us some details on that?

T.P. Seetharam: Yes, there are discussions on for an additional 57 Hawk Jet Trainer aircraft. I believe it is all ready to be signed and may be signed this afternoon in Bangalore. Since the Prime Minister of UK is visiting HAL it is quite possible that it would be signed there.

Question: There is one question on educational links. We have also been hearing reports of several Memoranda of Understanding being signed between British Universities and the Ministry of HRD here. Any elaboration on that? Can we expect some MoUs?

T.P. Seetharam: Yes, education is a very important area of cooperation. As was mentioned, our Minister of Education had gone to London earlier this year. There is already an ongoing programme called the UK-India Education and Research Initiative (UKIERI) which was started in 2008. The first phase is ending in 2011. So, there is some discussion on both sides about extending this for another five years. This will include a large number of projects, research awards, scholarships, and interactions between say about 300 schools in India with an equal number of schools in UK, collaborative research projects between universities, and a massive interaction at all levels in education. This is something that is being looked at. There could be other projects also in the education field.

Question: A follow-up question on the foreign university campuses. We know that Imperial College, Oxford, Cambridge are also coming with Mr. Cameron’s delegation. Any concrete MoUs between them and the Government of India?

T.P. Seetharam: I think a law relating to this aspect of permitting foreign universities to open campus etc., is still to be adopted in Parliament. So, I do not think there will be specific concrete agreements at this stage. But these are ideas that will be explored and we are happy to see that reputed universities in UK are represented in this direction.

Vishnu Prakash: All that I would like add, as I said, is that this is a very important sector of collaboration to which both sides attach the highest importance. That is precisely why you have a high-level mechanism led by the Ministers of Education, and we would very much want to see rapid progress in cooperation in this vital sector.