Official Spokesperson (Shri Syed Akbaruddin): Good afternoon friends and thank you very much for being here this afternoon. I have an announcement to make, and then I have here with me Joint Secretary (Gulf) Mr. Mridul Kumar who will speak on the forthcoming visit of the Prime Minister of Kuwait. Subsequent to that he will be willing to answer any questions that you may like to ask on the forthcoming visit. And then the floor will be open for questions that you may want to ask on anything else.
You know the ground rules very clearly, but let me repeat them. Each of you can choose your question very carefully because one question will be allowed per person as I see a large number of you and I would not be able to answer all the one questions, and so the question of giving a second chance to anyone does not arise. With those opening remarks, let me make the announcement that I have.
The Twelfth Meeting of the Foreign Ministers of Russia, India and China will be held in New Delhi on the 10th of this month. This is the third time that it is being held in India. Previously it was held in Delhi and Bengaluru, and this time it is back in Delhi. The External Affairs Minister will host his counterparts from both these countries.
As the meeting is taking place in the backdrop of the evolving scenario in the Middle East and North Africa as well as the upcoming 9th WTO Ministerial Conference in Bali, issues relating to these will figure in the discussion.
In addition of course they will also address concerns relating to terrorism, to drug trafficking, to discussions on cooperation in different multilateral fora in which all the three countries are participants, and will also cover other global and regional issues of interest to these three countries. The External Affairs Minister will separately meet each of the Russian and the Chinese Foreign Ministers bilaterally also for areas relating to bilateral interests of India and each of those countries.
Just for your information, in addition to these meetings on the 10th, the External Affairs Minister will also have ten bilateral meetings with various countries whose Foreign Ministers are coming for the ASEM Foreign Ministers meeting.
We will have a separate briefing on the ASEM Foreign Ministers meeting as well as other activities on Saturday. So, I will confine myself now to the RIC. If any of you would like to know which are the bilateral meetings, I am willing to share that information with you. That is the only announcement that I have for now in terms of visits and meeting proposed.
I will now request Joint Secretary (Gulf) Mr. Mridul Kumar to make his opening remarks in terms of the forthcoming visit of the Prime Minister of Kuwait, and then we will take it from there.
Joint Secretary (Gulf)(Shri Mridul Kumar):
Thank you. Let me thank you all for coming here before I take up the subject of the visit of the Prime Minister of Kuwait.
The last visit that we had from my region was the visit of the Prime Minister of Iraq. At that point in time I engaged with our friends in media and I mentioned to them about the excellent relationship and the stakes that our country has with these special friends that we have in the Gulf countries.
While we talk a lot about foreign policy and while we write a lot about foreign policy, I thought before I speak about this visit let me put in perspective the relationship that India has with the Gulf countries and the kind of stakes that we have with these countries. And I am going to put across to you for your kind information and consideration, and possibly some writing tomorrow, some hard facts. Please look at these hard facts and see for yourself where should we take our relationship to in terms of working closely with the Gulf countries.
The first and the most important aspect of our relationship with Gulf countries is the presence of over seven million Indians in the Gulf. These people are the great human resources that we have provided to the resource deficit countries there. They are our ambassadors there and also they provide us huge remittances. Out of the World Bank’s report of US$ 70 billion remittances annually that we received last year, over US$ 30 billion came from the six rich GCC countries.
I would like to present to you another fact. We are not only talking about human resources that we have provided to these countries but a very simple fact. For example, in Dubai we have got 12 Indian billionaires sitting now. So, you can imagine the kind of riches we have earned out of working with Gulf countries.
The second very important aspect of our relationship is the extraordinary bilateral trade that we have with them. Many of you might not even know that out of the last five years, four years EOE has been our largest trading partner. This year our figures reached, and I am talking about trade in goods, US$ 74.7 billion. And I am very happy to say that this is a most beautifully balanced trade – US$ 38 billion to US$ 36 billion. You tell me a single relationship India has with any country in the world where we have got such beautiful balance of trade relations.
The third very important aspect, this is another huge pillar for our relationship with Gulf countries and I think you must be always aware of it when you speak about this relationship, is that from the Gulf countries we source actually over 60 per cent of our oil needs. Out of the first five largest exporters of oil to India, we have got four in Gulf countries. The largest LNG supplier is in Gulf countries for us. And I am not talking about purchase of diamonds, I am talking about purchase of a commodity without which we have no escape, your machinery will stop. So, again this aspect of our relationship is extremely, extremely important.
The fourth important pillar we have to be bearing in mind always when we look at our relationship with GCC countries is that if you look at across the world, this is practically the only region left which has got huge investible surplus. What it means for a country like me? For me, I at the current state of affairs require huge investments in my infrastructure for the benefit of our people. And obviously the money will come from people who have got investible surpluses.
I will give you an example. UAE has one of the largest sovereign wealth funds – over US$ 750 billion. This is the Abu Dhabi Investment Authority. The Dubai Investment Authority also has similar kind of fund almost US$ 500 billion. You look at Saudi Arabia. Figures are not there officially with us but we are given to understand that almost US$ 500 billion are sitting there waiting to be invested in countries like us where there are huge returns to those investments.
If you look at again Kuwait, US$ 350 billion of sovereign wealth fund which is increasing by US$ 25 million every year. That is because the Kuwaitis are very clever people, they have decided that for future generations five per cent of the oil revenue will be put into a special fund which is called Fund for Future Generations, which is roughly translating into US$ 25 million dollars.
Why am I giving you all these figures? I am giving you all these figures because we from the Ministry are very conscious that we have to not only increase our engagement with the Gulf countries but we have to take it to a level where it does not remain a buyer-seller engagement. It is a much more comprehensive engagement and I think it is in our mutual benefit that we look at this relationship in that perspective.
Let me come back to the main point of agenda that is the visit of Kuwaiti Prime Minister. Obviously with Kuwait we have got excellent relations. It is millennia old relationship Indian rupees …(Inaudible)… 1961 in Kuwait. You can imagine the kind of relationship with Kuwait. The Kuwaitis have been very keen to establish and continue with the excellent relationship that is there for a long time.
We had in 2006 the historic visit of the Emir of Kuwait. I was the Deputy Chief of Protocol at that point in time. This was after a long period that the Emir came. In fact as soon as he became Emir in 2006 he decided that I should go to India. And for the first time ever I travelled with him to Bombay. I generally never travelled outside Delhi for those visits but for the first time I travelled because we realised that for India a country like Kuwait will have a huge benefit in terms of not only our energy security but also the well being of our people there. After that visit, we had in 2009 our Vice President going there and again this was a path-breaking visit. These two visits in fact charted the roadmap of our relationship in the current century.
Now this particular visit is a very special visit for us because we realised to our surprise that the last visit of a Kuwaiti Prime Minster was long back, forty-nine years ago. The reason was simple. At that point in time there were two posts handled by one person. The Crown Prince was also the Prime Minister for Kuwait. In 2003 they decided that they will bifurcate this post, and since then we never had a visit of the Prime Minister.
We said that Emir has been visiting us and I think it is very important that as a democracy and also looking at Kuwait which is the region is the only functioning constitutional monarchy with a Parliament, that we should have the visit of their Prime Minister also. So, this visit is an extremely important visit for us obviously in terms of the outlined parameters that I have given you earlier. Kuwait for us is a major supplier of our energy needs. Almost ten per cent of our petrol imports are sourced from Kuwait.
Our bilateral trade has been booming. In the last three years we have seen bilateral trade doubling. We had almost US$ 17 billion of bilateral trade with Kuwait. India has been one of the most important trading partners of Kuwait, definitely among the first ten. If you look at other aspects of our relationship, these are all on the upswing. The reason that we have this visit is to ensure that these aspects of our relationship are taken into account, we solidify them further.
As we charted out in our last visit when we brought in the Prime Minister of Iraq, we thought as a Ministry that we will move our relationship from a buyer-seller relationship to a more strategic relationship. Now what we are doing is we are telling our Kuwaiti friends that let us not only buy oil – which is very good in any case we requite it and you are obliged to sell it to us because we are the largest market for you – at the same time why do not we do some more for us in terms mutual benefit. And that more is the joint ventures in petrochemical complexes. We are looking at possibly working together in third countries also.
We are also looking at ventures in fertilisers sector also. So, there is a huge opportunity that we are looking at. Long-term strategic supply of oil is another aspect of our relationship that we are discussing very seriously with Kuwaitis. So, all these aspects make sure that we have a very well-rounded and a very important relationship.
I would not like to keep talking, I will stay quiet now, and I will leave the floor open to you. There are lot many areas I have not covered deliberately but I expect that you will ask me questions on those and I will be more than happy to answer your questions.
Question: Which are the areas other than oil and petrochemicals that we are looking at?
Joint Secretary (Gulf): As I mentioned to you, obviously trade is a very important aspect of our relationship. Our trade relationship is growing very fast. We export a lot of products to them which include food stuff, bovine meat, marine products. We are looking at textiles, we are looking at electrical equipment, we are looking at trucks, machinery. We are looking very seriously about this aspect of our relationship.
When I spoke about oil sector, you must take into account that when we are talking about taking it to a step next from buyer-seller, to a strategic level, we are talking about investment in our oil sector as well as in their oil sector. For example, in the current scenario the Kuwaitis are investing over a US$ 100 billion in terms of refurbishing their oil sector, clean fuel projects. They are building new refineries and there are huge opportunities for our companies especially for EPC projects to go there and work and ensure that our stamp is put strongly on these fields.
The other aspect of our relationship is investments into India, and we are seeking that aspect also both in terms of oil sector as well as in our infrastructure projects.
The other aspect of our relationship is the security aspect. We have started a dialogue with them. Obviously the countries in that region are located in a very volatile region and it is extremely important for us to engage with them in terms of security dialogue also. So, this is another aspect of our relationship we are looking at very seriously with the Kuwaitis.
Question: Is Kuwait giving us oil at the OPEC price or at a lower price?
Joint Secretary (Gulf): The prices, as you know, are determined by market forces. Obviously it is important for us to keep engaging with our suppliers in the Gulf countries so as to ensure first of all that there is uninterrupted supply of oil. You are aware that because of certain reasons beyond our control we were not able to source enough oil from Iran. That is the reason why countries like Iraq and Kuwait have been able to fill in that gap. I think I will leave it at that. For us the most important aspect is to ensure that our oil supplies are uninterrupted and as much oil as we require from them is available to us. That I think is the most important aspect.
Question: Like in Saudi Arabia, there is a problem of Kuwaitisation in Kuwait also. There are lots of deportations taking place. I work in Kuwait, I keep travelling there. A lot of people are being picked up from the street …(Inaudible)… A lot of Indians have been deported.Joint Secretary (Gulf): You are talking about Kuwait. I can answer about Saudi Arabia also.
Official Spokesperson: Only Kuwait. We will answer the other part separately.
Joint Secretary (Gulf): To give you facts and figures about the deportation, in the beginning of the year we had about 690,000 Indians living in Kuwait. Today the figure is almost 740,000. So, you call it deportation, I call it opportunity. My people are going there in big numbers. Obviously there is a huge human resource gap with the Gulf countries, and India is considered a very important and extremely attractive source for those requirements.
You are talking about deportation. I am talking not only about Indians, I am talking about expatriates in general. When you have got a huge expatriate population within your country, it is the sovereign right of a sovereign nation to decide what kind of treatment they would like to mete out to the people who are in violation of their laws. I presume the same thing is applicable to us also. When we have got foreigners coming to India and when they are in violation of our local laws, I think there are certain rules, procedures and our national laws that have to be abided by. When you are talking about deportation and when I give you the figure that our numbers or rising, then obviously people who are deported are the people who are in violation of the local laws.
Another aspect I would like to present to you is that the deportation figures in this year, when you say there is a special drive in Kuwait ongoing, is less than what happened in the last year. Obviously it is an ongoing process. Every country in the Gulf region will have the same thing. People who are in violation will be sent back. I think it is for the good of our people that they are sent back rather than being put into the jails.
Question: What is the number of the deported?
Joint Secretary (Gulf): This year we had roughly about 4,500 to 5,000 people who have been deported back. But this is again an ongoing process. Every year this happens. I do not feel a need for any worry on that.
Question: I think Kuwait hosts the largest expatriate Indian community. I think 750,000 Indians are there in Kuwait as per the figure given to us earlier.
My question relates to the maritime security in the region where there is tension around. Is this going to be one of the major topics on the agenda of the two leaders?
Joint Secretary (Gulf): Indian expatriates are the largest expatriate community within Kuwait. The 750,000 you are talking about is the expatriate community within Kuwait itself. That is one thing. In terms of security of people, obviously the numbers will not increase from 698,000 to 750,000 in a span of ten months without our people feeling reassured.
Official Spokesperson: He is talking about security in the Gulf region in general.
Joint Secretary (Gulf): Obviously the security within the Gulf region is of paramount importance to us and we are watching it very closely. We have been in touch with the Kuwaiti authorities on that. As I mentioned to you, the security dialogue is one aspect of our relationship that has been on the upswing. Obviously there will be discussions between the two Prime Ministers on this aspect.
Official Spokesperson: If there are no more questions on Kuwait, we will move on to other issues.
Question: We want an update on what is happening in Saudi Arabia over the Nitaqat.
Official Spokesperson: Let me try and tell you and the JS (Gulf) will add to that.
Since the programme began, our view has been that this is a programme which is internal to Saudi Arabia, and therefore it is the view of the sovereign Government of Saudi Arabia to reorganise the labour market as it deems fit. However, our view has always been that there will be adverse effects in terms of humans involved. And we have always been in touch with the Saudi Government to try and ameliorate the human dimensions of this programme. And it is in response to us and several other countries previously that the Saudi Government had extended the deadline twice.
Now that the deadline has ended on November 3, we had used the time available for us from the first announcement of this programme till the end of the deadline, very effectively. Our Mission in Riadh as well as our Consulate in Jeddah had launched a major campaign to sensitise Indian nationals of the need to regularise their stay in Saudi Arabia.
It has been one of the untold success stories of our efforts there that a very large proportion of Indians who had to change either their status or to change their sponsors, have done so. This is in excess of a million. Approximately 1.4 million Indians had used the opportunity to adjust their status in Saudi Arabia. In addition, approximately about a 130,000 decided to return to India.
With this, most of the issues impacting on the Indian community in Saudi Arabia are in hand. This is because there was a very major campaign launched with community organisations, with Indian schools. There are ten Indian schools there with 50,000 Indian children studying in those schools. The parents of those children were involved in this campaign. Social media was used. Linguistic support was provided by several Indian organisations there from various parts of the country. There were volunteers, 600 of them, who worked for over five to six months. And with the help of the Indian community, the Indian Embassy and the Consulate had largely been able to tackle this issue.
When the deadline ended, there were several countries which asked for a further extension. You will notice that we were not amongst those because we had made adequate preparations. That is where we stand on this matter right now. I will ask JS (Gulf) to provide any additional information that he has on this so that you can go with as much value that we can provide on this issue.
Joint Secretary (Gulf): There is one important aspect I thought I should share with you. When this issue came about, it is not a new issue. There has been ongoing Saudi policy in terms of Nitaqat where they were looking at, in the aftermath of Arab Spring, providing job opportunities in the private sector to their educated qualified youth. So, obviously they had put some quota on that and there were some reasons why some of our expatriate community were getting affected out of it.
When we realised that this was one important internal debate that Saudi Arabia was having within its own system of reforming, then we said to ourselves after realisation that this is an extraordinary opportunity for us to make sure that for our people have been for some reason or the other staying there illegally it is a beautiful opportunity for them to regularise their status. I think it is in that spirit and with extraordinary preparations that our Mission did, we could manage to make it a huge success in terms of orderly return of our people from Saudi Arabia.
When he talked about 130,000 people, we must look at these numbers in relation to other past experiences that we had. From Libya we evacuated 20,000 people. Here we have got orderly return of over 100,000 people without anybody knowing about it in the media as well as in our system. So, I think this we should give enough kudos to our people, our Embassy there, our Ambassador there who worked day in and day out to ensure that our peoples’ interest which is one of the highest priorities that we have in our relationship with the Gulf countries is looked after well.
Official Spokesperson: Just to add a little bit more, the number of Indians there now is about 2.8 million. This is a larger number than was at the beginning of the period that was given for regularisation of stay. So, in effect as Joint Secretary (Gulf) has said, we have utilised this opportunity to not only regularise, but the flow of Indians continues there.
Question: My question relates to the RIC. It is a good thing that the RIC has on its agenda the discussion on the Bali WTO Ministerial. We know that the Ninth Ministerial of WTO at Bali will have on its agenda the trade facilitation, and one more point of India’s interest is the food security which has come under attack from the European Union and the US. The European Union and the US give massive subsidies to their agricultural sector and food sector amounting to billions of Euros and dollars. Compared to this, the Indian food security implication is only Rs.90,000 crore annually. So, it is peanuts. The struggle in the WTO between the rich countries and the poor countries is on phasing out of the various subsidies given by the rich countries. That has been the cause of stalling of the process of negotiation in WTO. And there is olive branch being extended to India to buy the peace clause, to bring back the peace clause. Is there any agenda to aggressively take up these issues, the phasing out of the trade-distorting subsidies by European Union and US and defending our food security?
Official Spokesperson: Thank you Ashok, I think you have very eloquently argued our case. Let me try and summarise for you very quickly on the food subsidy which you I think have raised as an issue.
As far as we are concerned, this is an issue that, as you mentioned, had been raised. We are confident of defending our interests there. I think this issue was raised largely because some countries felt with huge food stocks we may use these for export. As you have quite clearly said, this is for our own use. These are for our subsistence requirements and not for export. We are confident that with this viewpoint we will be able to articulate our view very forcefully, as you said. If you would like further details on this, these have already been provided. They are on our website of what our position is on this, how we intend to articulate it, by the Commerce Minister when he was travelling to Indonesia. Those of you who travelled to Indonesia with him know that this is not only an issue for India, there are other countries with large populations and food requirements for their large populations including Indonesia. And the Indonesian President had raised it with the Prime Minister, and India and Indonesia will be working together on this in Bali.
Question: Akbar, could you give us an update on the scope of cooperation between India and China on Afghanistan; and will this figure in discussion between the Foreign Ministers of India and China and also in the RIC trilateral?
Official Spokesperson: Yes, all three of us are interested in Afghanistan – India and China as well as Russia. This will be an issue where we have had bilateral contacts with each of them on this. We have discussions at various levels with China as well as with Russia on this matter. Also, when the NSAs of BRICS met they were also discussing these issues. So, you can certainly expect that to be an issue that figures. However, an update I cannot provide because the last time these issues figured in bilateral discussions was in the Summit just I last month when we have had Summits both with Russia and with China. The outcomes of those are already provided to you. There is nothing to add since that on this matter.
Question: Akbar, could you give a broad-based picture of the agenda of whether RIC Foreign Ministers or whether the RIC architecture is taking a security view, the SCO status for India, and whether it is time for RIC to upgrade to a summit-level institutionalised mechanism?Official Spokesperson: RIC leaders have previously met at summit level. Subsequently they decided that the best format would be at the Foreign Ministers’ level because these are political consultations largely and there are other fora where the leaders are meeting, for example, the G20, the BRICS where they meet on the sidelines also. Plus we have annual summits with Russia, we have regular meetings with China. This year we have had three major interactions with China at the highest level – at the Head of Government or Head of State level. Therefore, at this stage there is no thought that there is a need to further elevate this to the next level. However, there is a thought that since the RIC predated the BRICS, we need to adjust RIC interactions taking into account the BRICS and its emergence. So, this will be an area of discussion.
As regards other issues of a strategic nature, yes this will be an area of discussion. It depends on what is raised. These are free-flowing discussions between the Foreign Ministers and we expect various issues of a strategic nature to be raised, and we are ready for that engagement.
Our position on the SCO is fairly well known. We have raised it most recently during the visits, and that is that it is now for the SCO to take a decision. My understanding is that decision is still somewhere down the line. We will await their outcome. We are confident of our credentials and of bringing greater value to SCO as and when SCO is comfortable in expanding its membership.
Question: Sir, could you tell us the names of the countries Mr. Khurshid is going to meet?
Official Spokesperson: This is only for the 10th. It is work in progress in terms of 11th and 12th, those Foreign Ministers who are coming in advance on the 10th or 9th night. These are the meetings that are likely to take place with the External Affairs Minister. These are going to be at Hyderabad House. These are with the Foreign Minister of Romania, the Foreign Minister of Lithuania, Poland, Hungary, Malta, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Norway. In addition, as I said, he will also meet his Russian and Chinese counterparts. These are for the 10th. There are other slots which we are working out depending on the time available, and we will put this out for the 11th and for the 12th.
You wanted the programme of the Kuwaiti Prime Minister. We will put this up on the website and send you a message.
Question: When the EAM would be meeting his Pakistani counterpart and the Bangladeshi Foreign Minister on the sidelines, just for my understanding, what could be the content of these sidelines meetings?
Official Spokesperson: All meetings on the margins of multilateral events are by their very nature extremely limited. As regards Pakistan and Bangladesh, the issues are self evident. With Pakistan they flow from the meeting of Prime Minister with Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif. And as you know, there was one outcome of that meeting and that outcome was a precondition for moving ahead in terms of our bilateral engagement depends on peace and tranquillity on the Line of Control. So, they will assess where they have moved on since then, does it require anything further. That will basically be the basis of further discussions.
As regards Bangladesh, you are aware and the Government of India is committed to bringing the Land Boundary Agreement to the next session of Parliament. Perhaps this will be an area of discussion. These are going to be limited meetings. There will be other issues perhaps on the spur of the moment but I cannot list out now for you. I am just giving you a broad-brush picture of that.
Question: Has a decision been taken on our participation in CHOGM at Colombo?
Official Spokesperson: Are you talking of level of participation or participation?
Question: Has a decision been taken on External Affairs Minister’s participation in CHOGM Summit in Colombo?
Official Spokesperson: If your question is about the level of participation, I presume that is what it is and not External Affairs Ministry’s participation, the invitation was extended by the Sri Lankan Government through their Foreign Minister who came here, to the Prime Minister of India. So, what you are asking is, is there a decision taken on the level of Indian participation.
When I last met you I did indicate to you and confirmed that a process is under way. I can further confirm that the process is now fairly advanced. And all issues relating to that now are available for decision making, and we hope to have an early outcome of that decision, and we will communicate to you once that decision is made available to us.
Question: My question is on what is happening in Goa with the Nigerians. The Nigerian envoy has made some very strong statements today in TV interviews saying that he wants evidence from the Indian Government about the safety of Nigerians there, that Nigerian people as a whole are feeling insulted and offended, that the Indian Government is more concerned with the welfare of your own people. These are some of the comments he has made today. Would you like to react to that?
Official Spokesperson: Nidhi, I think you are twisting his words. He did not say ‘Government’, he said ‘all of you’, and he specifically mentioned media. Please play those tapes again which are available to you and you have been playing on this. Let me divert from that because I do not want to say what he said, it is available on the record.
I think he clearly said that all of you, especially the media. As far as we are concerned, we are in diplomatic dialogue with them since yesterday when this matter was raised by them with us. We have explained to them. Their issue is that obviously the Nigerian High Commission is concerned and there is a sense of anguish at what may have happened to some of their nationals there. They have requested us for a thorough investigation and to bring to book those who are involved in the death of a Nigerian national and the consequent issues that flowed from that.
Immediately following that request we assured them that we will act swiftly on that matter. Immediately following that discussion with the Nigerian High Commission, the Ministry of External Affairs got in touch with the Chief Secretary of Goa who assured us that they are extremely keen to get to the bottom of this because they see this as an irritant and disturbance in terms of law and order there. They have said that the investigation is under way. They have also assured us that within 48 hours they would be providing us a report of the situation surrounding these events.
Following that discussion with the Chief Secretary of Goa, our acting High Commissioner in Abuja had gone over to the Foreign Office in Abuja and explained to the Nigerian Foreign Ministry the situation as we see it. They were very appreciative of our efforts in promptly responding to their request and they look forward to further communication with us.
May I assure you, after that happened yesterday we are in touch with the Nigerian High Commission even this afternoon. All we now need is a bit of space and time because law and order issues require time and space to be resolved. So, may I request you, like the Nigerian High Commission did, that please give us that space and time to engage in a diplomatic dialogue and resolve these issues because Nigeria and India have extremely cordial bilateral relations. It is a relationship which is defined by friendship. And we hope to resolve these issues in that manner of friendship and understanding.
Question: Sir, is there any potential threat to the Indians in Nigeria because I believe there were warnings sent out that there will be a repercussion?
Official Spokesperson: WhIle we are in diplomatic dialogue we have not heard the words that you are mentioning. Neither did the Nigerian High Commissioner on television mention the word that you are mentioning. There is a sense of anguish about their nationals being adversely impacted. Neither here nor in Nigeria did we hear the language that we heard from you just now. Question: Is there a drug-trafficking link to this whole episode which happened in Goa especially because the Goan Chief Minister has indicated as much?
Official Spokesperson: I mentioned to you that we are anticipating a report in the next 48 hours since yesterday. In a day or so we will get that report, we will have the factual information, and certainly share with our Nigerian friends information on that matter. At this stage when we have not received the report, I think it is premature for us to say anything on that issue. Question: Mr. Sartaj Aziz has sought an appointment with the Prime Minister also. Is he likely to meet the Prime Minister?
Official Spokesperson: When that decision is taken, we will let you know. I have already confirmed to you the moment we got the request for a meeting with the External Affairs Minister, that it is done. What you are saying is right. Subsequently there has been a request made and it has been communicated. We will take a decision and let you know.
Question: According to some news in Italy, Indian Government has agreed to a video conference with the four marines who are witnesses in that case.
Official Spokesperson: Maria, since you follow Italian newspapers very carefully, you have also perhaps followed what the Italian Foreign Ministry said on that. My understanding is that there are options that are on the table. Once action taken on one of these options we will certainly let you know.
Official Spokesperson: With that we come to the end of this interaction. Thank you very much.
(Concluded)
