Official Spokesperson (Shri Syed Akbaruddin): We requested Secretary (East) to brief you all quickly so that you can go and file your stories well in time. It is only now 4 o’clock Indian time. So, you will have enough time to file your stories.
I will request Secretary (East) to make his opening remarks where he will outline the areas of discussion. then if you have any questions, he will be willing to answer.
Secretary (East) (Shri Ashok Kantha): Thank you Akbar.
As you are aware, the Prime Minister and President Yudhoyono had a tete-e-tete followed by delegation-level talks. Earlier in the day, both External Affairs Minister and Commerce and Industry Ministry had separate discussions with their counterparts, and we have signed six documents altogether. Four documents were signed in your presence just now – on health, ant-corruption, narcotics and disaster management.
This morning in the presence of External Affairs Minister and his counterpart, two MoUs on cooperation – (1) between the Indian Council of World Affairs and its counterpart in Indonesia, and (2) between the Lal Bahadur Shastri National Academy of Administration and National Institute of Public Administration of Indonesia – were signed.
As for the flavour of the visit and discussions, the two principles have already spoken. They have given very clear indication of where they stand in terms of our strategic partnership and kind of strong commitment that we have on both sides to take it forward.
I would like to mention that this was Prime Minister’s third visit to Indonesia, but first official bilateral visit, as he mentioned. President Yudhoyono also has been to India three times. In fact in last ten years we have had eight visits at the level of Head of State or Government, four in either direction. That also sort of illustrates the kind of importance that is being attached to this relationship by both countries.
Prime Minister during his discussions with President Yudhoyono expressed desire that we seek a stronger, durable, action-oriented, strategic partnership with Indonesia. He also mentioned that we regard Indonesia as closest of neighbours. He described Indonesia as a maritime neighbour. As you know, the distance between Andaman Nicobar Islands and the tip of Sumatra is barely 90 nautical miles.
Likewise, President Yudhoyono also expressed a very strong desire to enhance what he characterised as long-term strategic partnership. So, there is this convergence of views between the two sides. In fact after the Prime Minister’s remarks President Yudhoyono said that he agrees entirely with what the Prime Minister had suggested in terms of future directions of relations.
Likewise, Prime Minister endorsed President Yudhoyono’s suggestion that the Ministers on two sides should put in place a medium-term blueprint for further development of strategic partnership between India and Indonesia.
Coming to the outcome document, which has already been released to you, it seeks to add further depth and content to the strategic partnership which was established in 2005 when President Yudhoyono had visited India.
We are focusing on five principal pillars of this partnership: strategic engagement: defence and security cooperation, comprehensive economic partnership, culture and people-to-people links, and cooperation in responding to common challenges. Details are given in the outcome document, Joint Statement that has already been circulated. So, I will not go into detail. I will just highlight some of the key features of the document and the discussions that took place between our Prime Minister and President Yudhoyono.
On strategic engagement, the two leaders have agreed that we should have annual summits at the leadership level, which I think is a very realistic goal considering that in the last ten years there have been eight visits already. At the suggestion of Indonesian side, Minister of External Affairs of India has agreed that we will have Joint Commission meetings every year instead of alternate year as at present.
The two leaders have also constituted Eminent Persons Group which will come up with a Vision Document 2025. On our side the EPG will be co-chaired by Mr. Shyam Saran, our former Foreign Secretary who is also a former Ambassador to Indonesia. So, he is very familiar with this country.
We have identified number of areas which require attention from a strategic perspective. Just to mention a couple of them, space cooperation is an area both leaders agreed that we need to develop further. Here again if I may just mention, we have fairly significant ongoing cooperation between our two sides. We have a Telemetry Tracking Station at Irian Jaya set up by India. We are cooperating in launch of Indonesian satellites, training Indonesian space scientists. Yesterday in Brunei, in the ASEAN context, we have agreed that beginning April next year we will start setting up a satellite tracking and data reception centre. So, space is an important area of cooperation.
We also agreed to renew the agreement for cooperation in utilisation of nuclear energy. That will be another area that will be developed further.
President of Indonesia, during his remarks at ASEAN-India Summit yesterday, specifically raised two areas where he thought we should step up cooperation. One relates to counterterrorism and the other is food security. Food security he felt that as two large developing countries India and Indonesia need to work together because we have common challenges there, including areas like our common interest in stockpiling of food grain reserves, working together in WTO, R&D cooperation, etc. Prime Minister responded positively.
Counterterrorism is another area he emphasised and he suggested that India and Indonesia are similarly placed in terms of trans-border threats, in terms of Jihadi threat. He suggested enhanced intelligence cooperation. Prime Minister responded very positively to that.
Coming to the related field of defence and security cooperation, here again, as you are aware, our Defence Minister had visited Indonesia last October when we had agreed to enhance our defence and security cooperation. We already have a Joint Defence Cooperation Committee. We have staff talks between two armies and navies. Today we have agreed to establish staff talks between two air forces as well. So, we propose to significantly upgrade our defence and security collaboration including with regard to maritime security. This is one area which was proposed by Indonesian President and our Prime Minister has responded positively. In fact, the two leaders have directed that we should draw up a comprehensive action plan for security cooperation. This dimension of our strategic partnership is getting a renewed emphasis.
The third pillar of our strategic partnership which figures in the outcome document relates to comprehensive economic engagement. Here the two leaders expressed satisfaction that ASEAN-India FTA process has been completed and agreements on services and investment will be signed in December this year. They agreed that shortly after the conclusion of ASEAN-India FTA we will launch bilateral CECA negotiations to build on what we achieved in ASEAN-India context.
As you know, we already have a trade turnover of US$ 20 billion. Since the establishment of strategic partnership in 2005, our bilateral trade turnover has increased more than five times, and we have set the target of US$ 25 billion by 2015, which we believe is quite realistic. There are also very significant investment flows from India into Indonesia in excess of US$ 10 billion. Several big Indian companies are already present here.
There are some issues regarding some of these investment projects. So, in response to our request, President of Indonesia has agreed that there will be a joint high-level task force which will go into issues pertaining to investment and encourage two-way flow of investment because this is again another very important area of cooperation. We had the first meeting of CEO’s forum yesterday which was co-chaired by our Commerce and Industry Minister.
Connectivity is another important area. Batik Air has agreed to commence direct flights to India and Jet Airways and Garuda Airlines of Indonesia have also entered into code-sharing arrangement. As you can see, in several areas there is both forward movement as well as new initiatives to consolidate these gains.
The fourth pillar relates to culture and people-to-people links. I will not go into details. They are given in the outcome document. I will just highlight a couple of points there. Prime Minister announced that we will increase scholarship slots to Indonesia, establish Chairs of Indian studies in Indonesia and likewise encourage Chairs of Indonesian studies in India. We will help set up a new vocational training centre in Papua. There are already two, one in Jakarta and the other in Banda Aceh.
On Indonesian side they have agreed to extend their cooperation in setting up Nalanda University. As you just saw, Lal Bahadur Shastri National Academy of Administration and its counterpart institution in Indonesia have signed a memorandum of understanding to consolidate their cooperation in training the civil servants, which is already ongoing.
Finally with regard to cooperation in responding to common challenges, this is one area which received a lot of attention in the discussions between the two leaders. You would have heard in media statements by our Prime Minister and President Yudhoyono, both referred to the fact that we face common challenges; and these common challenges that we face as two largest Asian countries, we need to respond together.
Here we agreed to step up our cooperation say with regard to ASEAN or East Asia Summit. Prime Minister conveyed his appreciation for the very supportive role played by Indonesia in development of our strategic partnership with ASEAN. Earlier when welcoming into the fold of East Asia Summit, Indonesia has always been very supportive.
I referred earlier to a suggestion from President Yudhoyono made yesterday about food security. That was discussed further during discussion today also and the two leaders had directed officials to work out an action plan in that regard. There is a formulation in the Joint Statement you may wish to refer to.
They also agreed that in the context of WTO, especially Doha Development Round where the Ministerial Meeting will be taking place in Bali in December, we will work together because we have very similar concerns and challenges there.
These were some of the highlights I wanted to mention. I will conclude by recalling what Prime Minister mentioned during his discussions with President Yudhoyono. He remarked that there is complete convergence of ideas between him and President Yudhoyono. And both leaders expressed enormous satisfaction with what has been achieved and they expressed desire to build on these achievements. Thank you.
Question: Sir, kya Indonesia India ke food security, joh bhi bataya gaya, us ko endorse karta hai?
Secretary (East): Yahan Food Security Act ke baare mein hum ne unko koi briefing nahin diya, vaisi baat nahin hai. Lekin yeh hum samajhte hain ki Bharat aur Indonesia duniya ke chaar sabse bade mulkon mein hain jansankhya ke nazariye se. Aur humein apne food security ka khud dhyan rakhna padega. Yeh hum baahar se laakar kaam nahin chala sakte hain. Is ke liye kuchh requirements hote hain, jaise ki stockpiling of food grains. Toh yeh sab joh requirements hain, we want to ensure that. Us ke alava yeh suggestion tha ki R&D ke area mein we need to cooperate.
In terms of mechanisms, aur vahan joh aap keh rahe hain uske baare mein charcha hogi. Hamaara Food Security act aaya. Us ke baare mein voh janna chahte hain. Us ke baare mein hum log aur charcha karenge.
WTO mein, main ne pehle mention kiya ki hum log saath milkar kaam karenga. Food security suggestion Indonesian President ke taraf se aaya aur hamaare Prime Minister ne use endorse kiya.
Question: Will India support the food security programme of Indonesia?
Secretary (East): Abhi support ka vaisa nahin hain ki humunhen … In food security we have to look after our respective requirements. But there is a certain international framework within which we need to deal with. Like, you would have heard President Yudhoyono referring to the need for maintaining stability of food prices or preventing distortions in markets of agricultural commodities. These are some of the common challenges that we have and when we pursue the agenda of food security, we would like to do it in a manner that it does not in any way impact on our own ability to take care of our food security requirements.
Question: Have you discussed the trade aspect of food security?
Secretary (East): This was a discussion at the leadership level. They have asked officials to work out what could be specific areas of cooperation. So, I really do not want to anticipate that at this point of time.
Question: There are a lot of talks about common challenges. Would you like to spell out what are these common challenges?
Secretary (East): Common challenges range from the fact that, as both leaders mentioned, India and Indonesia are two of the four most populous countries in the world; we are both located in Asia; we are maritime neighbours; we have common challenges relating to counterterrorism, relating to maritime security, relating to our developmental agenda. Indonesia would like to work with us when it comes to developing a security architecture for Asia Pacific region, developing principles for a security architecture.
There is a whole range of issues. The two leaders referred to WTO where we need to work together. G20 is another where we are already working together. There was understanding that there should be greater financial inclusion within G20.
We are currently the Chair of IOR-ARC. Next month we will hand over the Chair to Australia, and Indonesia will take over the Vice Chair of IOR-ARC. Indian Ocean is another where we are working together and there we propose to step up our cooperation. There is a very wide range of issues that we can work together on.
Question: Sir, you said that the President proposed maritime security …(Inaudible)… and that PM responded positively. Can you elaborate a bit on that?
Secretary (East): We already have a fairly significant defence and security cooperation with NATO countries. Just to give you a couple of examples, we have coordinated patrolling between the two navies in Malacca Strait because we are at the mouth of Malacca Strait and they are the littoral country for Malacca Strait. So, we are already working together through coordinated patrolling. That is one area our navies have agreed to have joint exercises. We have separate navy staff talks.
We are also working on establishment of AIS chain. We have agreed to step up cooperation with regard to maritime domain awareness and hydrography. Maritime domain awareness means movement of what is called white shipping, that means merchant shipping; having a better idea of that through exchange of data. That is one area we have agreed to step up cooperation in. Hydrography is another area. Some of these areas are referred to in the Joint Statement also. So, it is a fairly broad field. Anti piracy is one area. As you know, Malacca Strait had a serious problem of piracy earlier which has been controlled to a large extent mainly through regional cooperation.
Question: Sir, you referred to Indonesia’s willingness on cooperation in security, anti terror and especially …(Inaudible)…
Secretary (East): I will say it is a shared desire. This is one suggestion which came from President yesterday during the course of ASEAN-India Summit, but it is a shared desire.
Question: Can you elaborate a little bit what exactly is the cooperation at this point of time and what new initiatives can be taken in the future?
Secretary (East): I think I have already responded to that question. I talked about our security cooperation earlier. I have talked about maritime security. On counterterrorism we already have an ongoing dialogue. There is recognition on both sides that these are transnational challenges and we cannot deal with these challenges individually, we need to pool our resources because those players, those non-state actors, collaborate among themselves. They do not respect national boundaries. So, when we deal with them, there is need for stepped up intelligence for instance. And that is something that is already happening and we propose to enhance it.
Question: For anti terror also …(Inaudible)…
Secretary (East): Yes. Counter terrorism is anti terror, isn’t it?
Question: Again about the security aspect and both sides, just a day before the Chinese Premier went on a charm offensive, proposed a plan for the South China Sea safe passage and all. Did this figure during the talks between India and Indonesia?
Secretary (East): There is no reference to what the Chinese Premier offered or did not offer. I think we have a fairly strong partnership between India and Indonesia which is driven by our respective desire to promote it further.
Question: But then, suppose if it is between you and me, when we build a relationship our outside environment also impacts …(Inaudible)…
Secretary (East): There was no discussion on that.
Question: He has used the word comprehensive action plan for security cooperation. It includes …(Inaudible)…
Secretary (East): It is going to be developed. The two leaders have directed the officials to work out …(Inaudible)…
Question: In will include …(Inaudible)…
Secretary (East): Let us see. I do not want to anticipate what will be developed, isn’t it? You go through the Joint Statement. You will get a fairly good idea of what is there at present.
Question: But that perception is there, isn’t it?
Secretary (East): I do not want to make any such linkage. Let me make it very clear that we are not making any such linkage.
Question: It is independent. It is bilateral.
Secretary (East): It is bilateral but I referred to common challenges. So, we are dealing with common challenges.
Official Spokesperson: I think what Secretary was saying was these are transnational in nature. So, these are challenges which are mostly of non-state actors. Piracy, maritime security, cyber issues, these are all issues which are as far as …
Question: When we are talking about maritime security, it is not just about piracy. Piracy is one aspect of it. But maintaining the …(Inaudible)… of the sea lanes the question of sovereignty comes in.
Question: Actually, Mr. Kantha, you can tell us off the record.
Secretary (East): I know. There was no such discussion.
Official Spokesperson: There was no such discussion. This is your perception.
Question: I am not imputing. I am just seeking a clarification.
Official Spokesperson: There was no discussion on this. There was no reference.
Question: Two-way investment flows ki baat hai, us mein kis tarah ke concerns hamaare taraf se the joh address honge? Aur koi big ticket investment negotiation conversation hai pipeline mein?
Secretary (East): Kayi investment proposals already implement ho rahe hain. Indian companies, as you know, are investing in coal mining in Indonesia because that is one critical input for our power sector. We are already importing substantial quantities of coal and several Indian are investing in coal to export to India. In some areas it is moving well; there are some areas where projects which were announced during the visit of President Yudhoyono in January 2011 progress has been somewhat slow. So, Prime Minister is …(Inaudible)… we agreed to have a high-level task force to go into those issues. Prime Minister also welcomed investment by Indonesia in India. So, it will be a two-way process.
Question: What is the name of the institution participating …(Inaudible)… and ICWA?
Secretary (East): The name of the institution is National Institution of Public Administration (NIPA).
All that is there in the joint document. That is why I am not going into all those details.
Question: Sir, two specific questions. One is the Indonesia President referred to trade deficit and said that Indonesia has a trade deficit.
Secretary (East): No, we have trade deficit.
Question: Sorry, we have trade deficit. So, how are we trying to address that?
Secretary (East): On this issue I may mention that both during External Affairs Minister’s meeting with his counterpart this morning as well as Prime Minister’s meeting with President this afternoon, Indonesian side raised it on their own. They fully recognise the need for trade to be more balanced because at present our exports last year are in the tune of US$ 5.5 billion and our imports are about US$ 14.5 billion. They recognise that to be more sustainable, we need to increase the basket of commodities.
At present it is focused a bit too narrowly on extractive industries because we are sourcing material from Indonesia, coal for instance. Palm oil is another big area we are sourcing. They are the largest exporter of palm oil to India. Fine! Those are critical requirements for us. But as we broad base our trade I think it will also become more balanced over the years.
Question: On coal, are there any say levy or tax related issues which Indian companies are facing there?
Joint Secretary (South)(Shri Sanjay Bhattacharyya):There are certain regulatory issues regarding the coal, the mining sector which require certain divestment of their stocks, they have the shares over here. The second thing that has happened is a certain indigenous content in terms of the sale of the proceeds. But the experience of the coal companies which are mining over here is mixed. Some of it has to do with the domestic legislation, some of it has to do with the international price of coal on the basis of which it is traded. But mostly they have found that it is a venture into which more business is coming in. But what the Indian operators are looking for is a more transparent, stable and predictable regime.
Secretary (East): But one thing I want to clarify is that whatever regulations are there are global in character. It is not that they are specific to Indian investment. As Sanjay said, since our investors are making fairly large investments here, they would like to have more stability and predictability in terms of investment climate. There is nothing very special, these are issues just as faced elsewhere also.
Question: These are very big issues for Indian coal companies since Coal India’s output is not really increasing and we desperately need coal and domestically too we have not cleared many projects because of environment issues. So, Indonesia that way is a big source.
Secretary (East): That is why we have set up a high-level task force to go into those issues. It is an important area for us.
Question: Mr. Secretary, you mentioned that the two leaders discussed about space cooperation and that it is a key area.
Secretary (East): That is one of the areas. I was just illustrating. I did not want to give a laundry list. So, I just gave an example.
Question: Can you just help us understand what about the kind of cooperation that is possible and that we are considering?
Secretary (East): I think it is already there in the Joint Statement. So, I will not repeat that. It is there in the Joint Statement. It lists out cooperation.
Question: I wanted to ask you if we are going to launch a satellite for them. Is ISRO going to do that?
Secretary (East): That is one area where we have proposed cooperation.v Question: Most papers here are saying that. We are doing it for other countries.
Secretary (East): We have done that for them in the past and that is another thing which …(Inaudible)…
Question: On defence cooperation, are we going to export something, technology?
Secretary (East): There is already some limited defence supply relationship. It is quite limited. But we have agreed to have greater cooperation with regard to say co-production. So, those things have been listed out. But it will take time. This is something which has been identified.
Question: Co-production of defence equipment?
Secretary (East): Yes. It is listed in the Joint Statement. All these details are given in the Joint Statement.
Question: How was the chemistry?
Secretary (East): Chemistry was extremely positive. You would have heard Prime Minister’s statement. He paid a personal tribute to President Yudhoyono’s contribution to development of strategic partnership. Likewise, President Yudhoyono had lot of appreciation for Prime Minister’s role in development of this important relationship.
Question: Unhon ne apne third term ke baare mein kuchh kaha?
Secretary (East): Yeh aap un logon se puchhiyega.
Official Spokesperson: Thank you.
(Concluded)
