'No Change In India's Position On Tibet...'

Navtej Sarna: We have two press releases.  

Shri Tara Singh, currently HighCommissioner of India to Guyana, has been appointed as the next Ambassador of India to the Republic of Belarusin succession of Shri B.R. Muthu Kumar. He is expected to take up his assignment shortly. 

Deployment in MONUC

The other press release is on thedeployment of Indian Air Force Helicopter contingent in the UN Peacekeeping Mission in the Democratic Republicof Congo (MONUC) 

Starting from July 12, an Indian Air Forcecontingent is being inducted as a part of the UN Peacekeeping Mission in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC)called ‘MONUC’. India’s decision to send this specialised contingent of over 300 personnel underlinesits continuing commitment to the Charter and the principles of the UN and to peacekeeping as an invaluableinstrument for the maintenance of international peace and security. You will find all the details in the pressrelease. I may just highlight that the present contribution is the largest that the Indian Air Force has everlent to a UN Mission and the first case where the Indian Air Force will be providing support to foreignmilitary forces and also the largest Air Force contingent in Congo. 

Presently Indian peacekeepers are alsoengaged in the UN Mission in Ethiopia and Eritrea and UN Interim force in Lebanon and in the UN InterimAdministration Mission in Kosovo and several other operations. 

Indo-China

The third matter in which I wanted toshare some information with you was about today’s Inter-session Meeting  of the Consultative Committee on External Affairs and the subject for discussion was India-China relations. You can imagine thiswas of great interest coming as it does just 12 days after Prime Minister’s visit to China.

The External Affairs Minister briefed theHon’ble Members of the Parliament present and cutting across political party lines there was widespreadappreciation of the achievements of the Prime Minister’s visit and members congratulated the Prime Ministerand the External Affairs Minister and the Government for having undertaken the visit and for the achievementsthat the visit produced.

Mr. Sinha essentially briefed them on allaspects of the visit and the purposes of the visit as well as the achievements. He mentioned that the twinobjective of the visit were to establish close relations with the new leadership of China and to impart freshmomentum to the ongoing diversification of cooperation between our two countries. These objectives had beenfulfilled and in fact the External Affairs Minister quoted the Prime Minister saying "the journey ahead islong, but a good beginning has been made".

The meetings of the Prime Minister thathad been held have enabled him to establish personal relationship with new leadership of the People’sRepublic of China. The stress on economic and trade relations was evident from the fact that the PrimeMinister delivered two keynote addresses at two very large gatherings of Indian and Chinese businessmen andthat he had been accompanied by a 70 member delegation of senior businessmen from various chambers ofcommerce.

EAM also mentioned that a decision hadbeen taken to set up a joint study group to report within the next 12 months on the potentialcomplementarities in expanding trade and economic cooperation between our two countries and to draw up aprogram for the next five years. EAM also briefed the Consultative Committee on the documents that had beensigned. For the first time the two Prime Ministers signed the Joint Declaration outlining the platform androadmap that both countries have agreed on for India-China relations. This declaration was a signal that ourtwo countries are committed to working more closely together including through our common desire to strengthenthe trend towards multipolarity.

EAM also briefed the ConsultativeCommittee on the other document which was the Memorandum on Border trade and its implications. Anothersignificant outcome was the decision to appoint Special Representatives to look at the boundary question andthese representatives will explore from a political perspective of the overall bilateral relationship theframework of a boundary settlement.

EAM reiterated that regarding Tibet,contrary to some media reports, there was no change in India’s position either on Tibet or on the presenceof His Holiness the Dalai Lama or other Tibetan refugees in India. EAM also pointed out some areas of followup action. One is the establishment of an Indian Cultural Centre in Beijing, to establish annual meetings ofForeign Ministers, convening joint economic group later this year, setting up of the joint study group,scheduling meetings of the Special Representatives and to deliver on the assistance that was promised by thePrime Minister to the newly establishment India Study Centre in Beijing University as well as the draw upprogramme for the celebrations of the 50^th Anniversary of Panchsheel which falls next year.

These are some of the issues that werediscussed today. If you need  figures of bilateral trade, EAM briefed the Committee that it has grown by37.5% in 2002 to US $ 4.9 billion. India has been given approved tourist destination status by  China andcooperation on flood forecasting and control has begun  with the supply of hydrological data ofBrahmaputra in the flood season, while exchanges in other existing areas of cooperation like science andtechnology, cultural exchange, defence, agriculture, investment have progressed. 

Pakistani Business Delegation

Today the delegation from the visitingPakistani businessmen who are in India to attend the meeting of the India-Pakistan Chamber for Commerce andIndustry called on the Prime Minister along with two representatives of FICCI. They congratulated the PrimeMinister on having taken the peace initiative, thanked him for having taken it. They recalled that theIndia-Pakistan forum had been set up after Lahore and they expressed their happiness that they had been ableto meet now because of the initiative that Prime Minister Vajpayee has taken. They fully supported the movethat he had made.

The Prime Minister for his part mentionedthat the meeting that was taking place was a positive reaction to his initiative and that increased economiccooperation would create a conducive atmosphere for betterment of relations between the two countries.Pakistani businessmen also expressed their thought that the improvement in trade and economic relations wouldbenefit Pakistan itself also and it would open up a 1 billion strong Indian market for trade. These were thematters I had. 

When was this Brahmaputra river datagiven?

It is an ongoing process. I cannot giveyou an exact date of when this data was exchanged. 

Indian troops have been deployed inEritrea, Kosovo….. How many troops have been deployed?

I don’t have details of the each of themissions but there is nothing new. Our presence has been there for a very long time. I can tell you thatoverall India has been one of the largest troop contributors to UN Peacekeeping activities with more than65000 Indian troops, military observers, civilian and police officers having served in 36 UN peacekeepingoperations over the last 5 decades. 

When is Shivshankar Menon going toIslamabad?

I don’t have a date of when he is goingto leave for Pakistan. 

Why is the delay?

I don’t think there is any delay at all.Prime Minister’s visit has taken place to China and that is why our Ambassador was present in Beijing. Therehas been no delay. In fact we had announced his name much before anything else happened. 

What are the other issues discussed inthe consultative committee meeting?

Some issues came up. The main subject wasIndia-China relations. Briefly there was discussions on whether any decision had been taken on sending troopsto Iraq and EAM briefed the committee that no decision had been taken yet on the matter and that all aspectswould be taken into account. 

Foreign Secretary’s departure toKathmandu has been delayed. When is he going to Kathmandu?

It’s a question of flight schedules. Hewill be reaching in time for all the  substantive meetings. 

Nepalese Foreign Office Spokespersonwas quoted as saying that informal bilateral meeting between India and Pakistan are expected. Can you confirmthis?

There is no plan for any bilateralmeeting. 

On the issue of non-tariff bearer?

I am not aware of the specifics that wereraised. I am not going to respond until I see the exact things that were raised. 

Israeli Foreign Minister’s specialenvoy is in Delhi. Do you any details?

He is a special envoy. I will have tocheck when are the meetings taking place. I can let you know later.