Lok Sabha Debates
The Minister Of External Affairs Laid The Statement Regarding Recent Visits ... on 19 November, 2010
> Title: The minister of External Affairs laid the statement regarding recent visits abroad by Hon. Prime Minister.
MR. CHAIRMAN: Shri S.M. Krishna, you may kindly lay your next Statement also.
… (Interruptions)
THE MINISTER OF EXTERNAL AFFAIRS (SHRI S.M. KRISHNA): Mr. Chairman, Sir, I beg to lay a Statement regarding the recent visits abroad by hon. Prime Minister.
I rise to inform the House of Hon'ble Prime Minister’s recent bilateral visits to Japan and Malaysia, and also to Vietnam and South Korea for attending the 8th India-ASEAN Summit & 5th East Asia Summit in Hanoi and the G-20 Summit in Seoul.
JAPAN Prime Minister visited Japan from October 24-26, 2010 for the Annual Summit with the Prime Minister of Japan. Such summits have been institutionalized and held regularly since 2006. The desire to deepen relations with India came through in PM's all meetings in Tokyo with Prime Minister Kan and important members of his Cabinet, with leaders of opposition parties as well as captains of Japanese industry. PM also had the opportunity to call on and exchange views with Their Majesties the Emperor and Empress of Japan, PM conveyed appreciation for Japan's generous Official Development Assistance to India over the years, especially in flagship infrastructure projects such as the Delhi Metro, Dedicated Freight Corridor Project and Delhi-Mumbai Industrial Corridor. To corporate Japan, PM underlined the attractiveness of India as an investment destination and the complementarities between our two countries in terms of technology and manpower. Both Prime Ministers announced the conclusion of negotiations on a Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement (CEPA) between our two countries. Japan is completing its internal procedures following which the CEPA will be signed and later implemented, leading to a quantum increase in our trade and investment with each other. The Japanese Prime Minister also proposed the establishment of a comprehensive Ministerial-level Economic Dialogue to drive our economic relations forward. PM has agreed with his suggestion.
PM complimented Prime Minister Kan for his bold decision in June this year to commence negotiations with India on an Agreement for Cooperation in the Peaceful Uses of Nuclear Energy. Given Japanese sensitivities on this issue, such a decision is further indication of the strategic nature of India-Japan ties. Both Prime Ministers have urged our negotiators to conclude such an Agreement at an early date. PM also expressed the hope that Japanese firms will soon be able to contribute to civil nuclear power generation in India.
India and Japan have agreed to work together on several regional and international issues including the emerging East Asian architecture, for reform of the United Nations including its Security Council and on climate change.
I am confident that his visit to Japan and his interactions with Prime Minister Kan and other leaders will contribute substantially to enhanced engagement with Japan which is becoming one of our most vital and dynamic international partnerships.
MALAYSIA Prime Minister's official visit to Malaysia from 26 to 28 October 2010 was at the invitation of the Malaysian PM Dato' Sri Mohd Najib Tun Abdul Razak. During the visit, PM had detailed discussions with his counterpart on all facets of bilateral relations, as well as regional and global issues of mutual interest.
Hon'ble Prime Minister delivered the Khazanah Global Lecture at the invitation of PM Najib in his capacity as Chairman of Khazana Nasional, which is the investment arm of the Malaysian Government.
Both the Prime Ministers endorsed the successful conclusion of negotiations for a Comprehensive Economic Cooperation Agreement (CECA) covering goods, services and investment and an Agreement was signed for implementing CECA on 1 July 2011.
Other Molls and Agreement were signed during the visit in the field of information technology, tourism, traditional systems of medicine, scientific research and culture.
India agreed to set up a Joint ICT Talent Development Consultative Committee involving the two governments, as well as, industry players, to make specific recommendations for enhancing collaboration in this field.
The two PMs launched the India-Malaysia CEOs Forum comprising of 18 business leaders from each side. The Forum will provide specific recommendations to the two Governments on improving business environment and enhancing investment and trade between the two countries.
Both the Prime Ministers identified various elements to develop Strategic Partnership between the two countries. These include maintaining regular dialogue and contact at the summit level; biennial meetings of the Joint Commission headed by the Foreign Ministers; enhancing defence exchanges, cooperation and joint collaboration on projects of mutual interest in the defence sector; enhancing cooperation in counter-terrorism, including through information sharing and the establishment of a bilateral Joint Working Group on Counter-Terrorism at an early date; further strengthening bilateral trade and investment cooperation; expanding cooperation in infrastructure development and exploring possibilities for development of cooperation in financial sector; studying the possibility of enhancing the scope and level of joint collaboration in the hydrocarbons sector between PETRONAS of Malaysia and ONGC Videsh Limited of India in third countries; and identifying possible collaborative projects in the new and renewable energy sector through the establishment of a Joint Working Group.
The two Prime Ministers agreed that a comprehensive reform of the United Nations remains a priority in order for the organization to effectively address today's global challenges.They agreed to work in partnership towards achieving a more representative, more efficient and more effective UN Security Council especially its expansion in both permanent and non-permanent categories.
Both the Prime Ministers jointly launched the 'Little India' project in Brickfields. Speaking on the occasion, Prime Minister stated that the decision of Malaysian Government to dedicate the area of Brickfields, which is one of the oldest Indian settlements in the country, as "Little India" is a tribute to the contribution to nation building of all Malaysians of Indian origin. PM also announced that India would be presenting a Torana Gate to the residents of Brickfields as a mark of India-Malaysia friendship.
8th India-ASEAN Summit & 5th East Asia Summit Prime Minister visited Vietnam to attend 8th India-ASEAN Summit & 5th East Asia Summit.
The 8th India-ASEAN Summit on 30th October provided India with the opportunity to hold close consultations with our ASEAN colleagues on the progress of our relationship. Our ASEAN colleagues exuded warmth and friendship for India and expressed their desire to take our relationship to new heights.
As a rapidly growing economy, India offers to ASEAN the prospect of a productive economic relationship. An economically robust relationship between the two sides has enormous potential. Keeping this in view, a new and comprehensive India-ASEAN Plan of Action 2010-2015 was adopted at the Summit. The phenomenal growth of our trade during the last decade has inspired us to conclude a trade-in-goods agreement with ASEAN which has become operative from January 1, 2010. We hope to conclude the Trade-in-Services and Investment agreement soon to complete the ASEAN-India Free Trade Area, which will act as a catalyst to bring down the cost of production on both sides and further increase our trade.
The leaders recognized the importance of connectivity to ensure free flow of goods and people through the region. In this connection, progress of ongoing projects in promoting North-East of India as the bridge to ASEAN, such as Trilateral Highway and its extension to Lao PDR and Cambodia, was reviewed by the leaders. The leaders acknowledged India's readiness to offer assistance in the forthcoming ASEAN ICT master plan to improve ICT connectivity. In addition to about 380 air-flights operating between India and ASEAN, the leaders encouraged the officials of both sides to conclude an India-ASEAN Air Transport Agreement at an early date.
Distinguished Members of Parliament would kindly recall that at the last Summit Prime Minister had proposed an India-ASEAN Commemorative Summit in India in 2012. I am happy to announce that the idea has met with a positive response from the ASEAN side. A series of events beginning with India-ASEAN Business Summit and Exhibition from March 2-6, 2010 are proposed to be held culminating in the Commemorative Summit. India and ASEAN have agreed to form an Eminent Persons Group, whose Terms of Reference were adopted at the Summit. The Eminent Persons Group will draft a new India-ASEAN vision 2020 document for presenting at the Commemorative Summit, taking into account the shift of global economic currents towards Asia in the 21st Century.
Prime Minister announced new initiatives in the field of people-to-people contacts, space cooperation, capacity building and Information and Communication Technology as a means to infuse more depth in our relationship. Specifically, the initiatives included extension of Visa-on-arrival facility to nationals of Cambodia, Vietnam, Philippines and Lao PDR from January 1, 2011, setting-up a Centre for Tracking and Data Reception and imaging facility in an ASEAN country, establishing Vocational Training Centres, and offer of 100 IT scholarships to each of the 10 ASEAN countries over the next 5 years. I am glad to say that these initiatives were welcomed and appreciated by the ASEAN countries.
Prime Minister also attended the 5th East Asia Summit on the same day. The East Asia Summit (EAS) mechanism provides India the forum to engage with a larger number of countries of the region in both strategic and economic spheres. This year marked the entry of US and Russia into the EAS process as 'guest of the host' with formal entry scheduled for 2011. We welcome their entry which, we believe, will add to peace and stability in the region and also enhance the ongoing cooperation. We appreciate ASEAN's efforts in piloting the Comprehensive Economic Partnership in East Asia.
PM took the opportunity to brief his EAS colleagues on the progress made by India on the Nalanda University Project, including the passage of Nalanda University Act by this august Parliament. The unanimous passing of the Nalanda University Bill by both the Houses reflected our desire to revive the historical legacy of this world centre of learning and education.
Mr. Chairman, we were able to drive our agenda of regional integration with success. We will work on all the potential ideas, which have been shared with us for implementation, with re-doubled effort and take our relationship with ASEAN and East Asia to new heights.
G-20 Summit The G-20 Seoul Summit organised under the theme 'Shared Growth Beyond Crisis' was attended by G-20 members alongwith Ethiopia (chair of NEPAD or the New Partnership of Africa's Development), Malawi (chair of African Union), Vietnam (chair of ASEAN), Spain and Singapore. The United Nations, World Bank, IMF, ILO, WTO, FSB and OECD were also represented.
The Summit meeting was fruitful, and it delivered the Seoul Action Plan based on a review of the global economic situation and the progress of the 'Framework for Strong, Sustainable and Balanced Growth' pertaining to country specific mutual assessment process (MAP) or peer review. The Summit mandated further country-led work under the Framework Working Group (co-chaired by Canada and India) regarding 'indicative guidelines' in the context of global imbalances with technical support from IMF and other international organisations for consideration by the G-20 Finance Ministers and Central Bank Governors.
The Summit endorsed international financial institutions (IFI) reforms, in particular the shift in IMF quota share of over 6% in favour of the emerging market and developing countries (EMDCs) by 2012. The Summit also endorsed the financial regulatory reforms by way of Basel-Ill agreements for implementation upto 2019.
Firmly putting development on the agenda of the G-20, the Summit approved the Seoul Development Consensus for Shared Growth which marked the launch of an ambitious G-20 development agenda. This G-20 development dimension is based on six principles, i.e. focus on economic growth, global development partnership, global or regional systemic issues, private sector participation, complementarity and outcome orientation. The G-20 Multi-Year Action Plan comprises nine development pillars, viz. Infrastructure (including a High-Level Panel on infrastructure financing), human resources development, trade, private investment and job creation, food security, growth with resilience, domestic resource mobilisation, knowledge sharing and financial inclusion.
The Summit adopted the G-20 Anti-Corruption Action Plan.
The Summit reiterated the commitment against protectionism in all its forms. It sent a strong political impetus for completing WTO's Doha Development Round of trade negotiations during 2011.
The Summit provided a political message for the success of climate change negotiations at the forthcoming UNFCCC COP-16 meeting in December 2010 in Cancun, Mexico.
The Summit addressed the issue of global imbalances. In this context, Prime Minister stated at the Summit that "Recycling surplus savings into investment in developing countries will not only address the immediate demand imbalance, it will also help to address developmental imbalances. In other words, we should leverage imbalances of one kind to redress imbalances of the other kind." Prime Minister's statement was endorsed most positively by a number of Heads of State and Government attending the Summit including the leaders from Africa.
We view the outcome of the G-20 Seoul Summit as positive. Our efforts were successful in bringing the development issue into the very forefront of the sustainable, manageable growth process and we stressed the need to address the fundamental imbalance which is the development imbalance between rich and poor countries. We are committed to engaging proactively and constructively with our G-20 partners for implementing the decisions of the past G-20 Summits including the recent Seoul Summit, as we move forward to the next i.e. sixth G-20 Summit in Cannes, France in November 2011.
On the sidelines of the Seoul Summit, Prime Minister had bilateral meetings with the Leaders of Canada, Ethiopia, Mexico and UK as well as the Secretary-General of UN during which they discussed bilateral and international issues of mutual interest.