Under Secretary (XPS) (Dr. Vishnu Vardhan Reddy): Good evening members of the media. Welcome to the onboard briefing. We will first begin with the opening remarks by the Hon. Vice President following which we will have a few questions.
Vice President: Well friends we have spent three and a half days, as I see it very usefully, first in Lima interacting with the Peruvian leadership. We put in place some institutional structures which will further bilateral cooperation. The response from the other side, as is reflected in the statement which was issued, was very clear. I think that is the road on which we are going to travel. There is a convergence of interest in certain areas. The details are all in the statement. So I will not take your time going over it.
Rashtrapatiji has invited the President of Peru to pay an official visit to India and that invitation has been accepted. Details will be worked out through diplomatic channels. It is quite evident that given Peru’s economy and the progress it has made in recent years, its rate of growth and above all its reservoir of essential minerals, it is an area where Indian companies will be increasingly involved.
There are already some companies which are working in Peru in different sectors and in the coming years we will see much more of this. So this is an obviously a very clear area of cooperation. Similarly there are segments in which defence cooperation can take place. There is a much wider field of cooperation on multilateral platforms.
All in all, I think the visit after a long interregnum of exchange of high-level visits served the purpose of highlighting and underlining our interest in developing relations with Peru. There have been two earlier visits from the Peruvian side at the level of Head of State, and one from our side when in 1998 the late President Narayanan visited Lima. But after that there has been a certain gap. That gap has now hopefully been filled. So that is the first part of the visit. Yes all of you are witness to what we did on first day. The cultural festival, a very fine troupe, was greatly appreciated.
Then on the second day when we were visiting this archaeological site which is one of the many sites, not the most famous one, because logistics did not permit us to go to Machu Picchu, but this one is important enough and it underlines the long history of Peru and long history of civilisation in Peru. I mean the archaeological sites that we saw are a clear indication to this. Later in the day that day we also went and saw this museum, a private museum, a one-man collection. What a remarkable collection! There is something that we can learn in that field from the way museums should be organised. I think our Secretary Culture who was there did mention that this is an area that they are exploring.
The Cuba stay was shorter. We saw the inauguration of the cultural festival. The performance was scintillating and the audience in the auditorium conveyed its own appreciation. No doubt about it that the people of Havana greatly appreciated this gesture on part of the Government of India.
Since this morning the programme is known to you. It started with visiting the National Memorial, laying the wreath. From there I went straight for a meeting with the Vice President of Peru. This was a substantive meeting. There were two things in this meeting, one was the unambiguous reiteration from our side that we value the relationship with Cuba and that we have every intention of sustaining it and taking it to higher levels.
We have identified areas in which cooperation can be mutually beneficial. The health sector is something particularly worthy of mention because the Cuban side has over the years developed and taken initiatives which are unique in certain areas of immunology and other things. You were all present in that presentation made in the Institute and that is a clear indication that they have, on their own, achieved remarkable progress. Their public health programmes are something which I am sure we would look at very closely because it is delivering very good results.
Similarly there are certain other areas in which we have been cooperating and we will continue to cooperate. Sports is one area. We got very good results in having a Cuban coach. Vice President did remark to me that by using the services of our coach you deprived us of one medal. All in all, it was a good meeting. The determination of the two sides is very clear to sustain our cooperation, multilateral cooperation and bilateral cooperation.
On multilateral matters, what the Prime Minster said recently in his address to the UN General Assembly that we do need to pay attention to a new framework of global governance and emphasis must be underlined that the post-2015 agenda of the United Nations must focus on development. It should not for any reason be sidetracked because of some of the other concerns of the United Nations. So, this is a subject on which the Cuban side’s and our views are identical and we had no difficulty in agreeing to it.
Similarly on NAM, NAM has served a very useful purpose. NAM remains a critical area of cooperation, South-South cooperation. Cuban side is active in it, we are active in it. So, there was a convergence of views.
The Vice President hosted a lunch for us and then we went to the Institute of Immunology.
I suppose all of you know that the highlight of the day was the call on the leader of the Revolution, Comandante Fidel as they call him, Fidel Castro. It was something that was conveyed to us only in the morning meeting. They crafted it carefully. Since he is no longer participating in public life, they made it look like a social call. But the gesture and the significance of the gesture was not lost on me, is as not lost on any of you. He does not meet foreign visitors. He leads the life of a semi recluse, busies himself with, he told me about all the things he does in horticulture and gardening and other things. But basically they wanted to draw a line between an official engagement and a social engagement.
We had a long meeting contrary to what had been indicated to me and what was my expectation. I had hoped that it would be 20-25 minute meeting. It went on to an hour and five minutes. He is frail but he is in good shape. He is all there. He is aware what is happening in the world. And his views remain as we have known them the last half a century.
The final item in the programme was the call on the President of Cuba Raul Castro. There again he said he has read the report on the morning discussions and he endorses them totally. He also said that the Vice President is the person who is designated to take over from him as President once his term ends.
That, ladies and gentlemen, is the sum total of what we did this morning and this afternoon.
Under Secretary (XPS): Thank you, Sir. The floor is open for a few questions now.
Question: Your Excellency, such a long meeting, a 65-minute meeting, is certainly an unusual diplomatic gesture for you. At one point of time in NAM and …(Inaudible)… and all there was very close association between the three leaders – the then Prime Minister Mrs. Indira Gandhi, Yasser Arafat and Fidel Castro. Did he at any point of time remember her?
Vice President: He remembered India very fondly, very fondly his various visits to India, the various plants and products that he has got from India, the cooperation that he has had with Indian leaders. The meeting was a gesture to India and the value that he and the Cuban system attach to that relationship.
I forgot to mention that in my meeting with the Vice President this morning we conveyed to them two specific decisions on our side. One is that we are increasing the number of ITEC slots. We want to increase them from 50 to 60 now because the Cuban side has been using those slots very purposefully. And I told Vice President that there is a now a community of India returnees in their system. So they were very appreciative of that.
The second announcement that we made to them – something which had been promised when Foreign Minister Krishna had visited Cuba earlier – was that we would make a gift of transport busses to them. Now the decision that I conveyed today is that our gift will be of 50 buses – 25 to be delivered in the early months of next year and the remaining 25 to be delivered later in the year. They were highly appreciative of this gesture because they say that one of their major problems is public transport, which these buses would help resolve.
We already have, as you know, a 120 million Line of Credit which has been offered to Cuba. Some of it has been used by them but most of it still remains to be utilized. I urged them to use it as quickly as they can.
Last but not least, OVL is already present in Cuba. It has got some blocks which it is exploring. We do not know the results at this stage. That is all.
Question: Sir, Fidel Castro ke baare mein duniya ko lagta hai ki voh bahut beemaar hain, aur unki sehat ko lekar chinta jataayi jaati hai. Aapke saath mulaaqat mein aapko kya anubhav hua, aur unki sehat ke baare mein agar aap kuchh bata saken?
Vice Pfresident: Ek ghanta unhone baat ki, aur agar hum na uthte toh voh baat karte jaate. 87 ki umar pe joh health honi chaahiye, thoda sa aadmi frail toh nazar aata hai, magar his mental faculties were all there. And physically if he could talk for 65 minutes, then obviously he is fit.
Question: Did the issue of US sanctions figure in your talks with the Cuban leadership? And what do you think India can do to ease the effects of the sanctions on Cuba?
Vice President: Two days back we have voted in the UN General Assembly against the continuance of sanctions. There was a resolution which was voted by 188 in favour and two against. Only two countries opposed that resolution. The resolution was that the sanctions should be eliminated. The two countries were United States and Israel. So there is overwhelming opinion in the international community that those sanctions ought to be lifted. They are unilateral sanctions. They are not UN sanctions.
Question: Aapki joh meeting hui Fidel Castroji ke saath, kya yeh maana jaaye ki …(Inaudible)… Bharat aur Cuba ke rishton mein joh pichhle dinom mein khattapan aaya tha …(Inaudible)… usko door karne mein is meeting ka bada yogdaan rahega? Aur is ka Bharat aur America ke sambandhom mein kya asar pad sakta hai?
Vice President: Dekhiye doh baatein aapne kahi hai aur main donom se sahmat nahi hun. Hamaari Cuba ke saath jo relationship hai voh consistent hai, sustained hai. Aur is mein koi ambiguity nahin hai. Joh bhi sarkaarein Dilli mein rahi hain, Cuba ke saath joh relationship hai usmein koi farq nahin aaya hai. United States koh maloom hai ki hamaare views kya hain. Unke paas pura record hai hamaara voting ka in resolutions par. Aaj se nahin jab se yeh resolution aa rahe hain. Toh usmein koi problem nahin hai.
Question: In …(Inaudible)…which you visited, what broadly you get a sense of are there expectations from us? And with Cuba we had an ideology-based relationship. We live in the 21st century. How do you see we can modernize our relationship with Cuba and what is the relevance of it in the modern context?
Vice President: Which ideology are you talking about?
Question: Non-Aligned Movement, South-South solidarity. That still holds.
Vice President: We still subscribe to Non-Aligned Movement, we still subscribe to South-South solidarity, we still subscribe to the view that international agenda must focus on development issues and must not shift from it. So, on that there is convergence of views.
Question: Recent articles in international press suggest that Cuba is slowly opening up, they are changing their policies. Did this question come up in your discussion whether there is a change in Fidel Castro’s observation about economic policies?
Vice President: Comandante Castro se ispe meri baat nahin hui, unke Rashtrapati se hui. Aur unhonne mujhe bataaya ki unke party congress mein joh decisions huye hain, bahut detail mein unhonne bataya ki 135 decisions unhonne liye hai. Ab voh voh shabd istemal nahin kar rahe hain ‘opening up’. Magar uska matlab vahi hota hai ki thodi restructuring ho rahi hai. Ab kis speed se ho rahi hai, unka khayal hai ki voh ek controlled process hoga. Ab voh toh waqt batayega ki kitna controlled hoga.
Question: Sir, we will be absolutely hungry for any information that you can give us on your meeting with the Comandante because this is our precarious way of living …(Inaudible)… You mentioned that his views are exactly what we have known for half a century. We would like you to elaborate on that. And you said that he shared with you his views on horticulture and whatever he is doing there. And finally, what are the differences that you see between him and the current President?
Vice President: None. The brothers coordinate their views very closely. I think he is the undisputed Leader of the Revolution. He may not be active in public life but his place in the Cuban public life and Cuban history is secure.
He talked a great deal, he talked about the threat to security in the world. He talked about the evils of large arsenals of nuclear weapons. He talked about accidents which may destroy the world. In fact, recently a book has been written called ‘Command and Control’ which relates an incident, which he referred to, when a bomb was accidentally dropped on the territory of the United States somewhere between New York and some other city. Mercifully it did not go off. He said, these are all accidents which are waiting to happen. I told him that we have been of this view for a very very long time, and Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi had gone and presented a comprehensive plan in UN General Assembly in 1988.
I think the broad framework of his views has not changed, but this was not the occasion to quiz him closely on these matters. I was making a social call. I did not want to unnecessarily burden him with work related …
Question: Did he mention anything about terrorism?
Vice President: No, that did not come up there. It came up elsewhere.
Question: Before this meeting, when did you meet Fidel Castro earlier?
Vice President: My earlier meeting was Non-Aligned Conference in New Delhi in March 1983. I was then Chief of Protocol, and I had a fair share of the burden in organizing that Conference at five months interval.
Under Secretary (XPS): Thank you colleagues. With that we come to the conclusion of this media briefing. Thank you all.
Vice President: Thank you very much. Enjoy the flight. Enjoy your dinner and brace yourselves for London weather.
(Concluded)
(Text in italics is transliterated from Hindi)
On board
October 30, 2013
