Official Spokesperson, Shri Raveesh Kumar: Friends good afternoon and welcome to this special briefing from Osaka on the day three of the Prime Minister’s visit. As you are aware over the last two days Prime Minister
had very hectic engagements not only in terms of attending the G20 Summit but also in terms of participating in several bilateral as well as attending two trilateral meetings i.e. RIC and JAI and participating in the BRICS Leaders’ Meeting as well.
Today morning the day started with bilateral meeting with the President of Indonesia. That was followed by two more bilateral meetings with the President of Brazil and the last meeting which just concluded was with the President of Turkey.
In between these meetings Prime Minister also made an intervention on the session – III on the topic – Addressing inequalities, realizing an inclusive and sustainable world.
As we speak he is having pull aside meetings with Chile and Singapore. I will quickly run through some details of bilateral meetings which happened today morning.
In his meeting with the President of Indonesia there was a view that since the election process has concluded in both the countries now it was time for both countries to move towards strengthening the Comprehensive Strategic Partnership which was established
during the last visit of Prime Minister to Indonesia.
Discussions basically focused on four different areas. Some sharing of perspective on Indo-Pacific, also on trade and investment, there was some discussion on how we can deepen the maritime cooperation between India and Indonesia and also to take our defence
relationship to the next level.
There is a trade target which has been setup between the two countries of $50 billion to be achieved by 2025 and the two leaders agreed that we need to work to achieve the target.
As far as Brazil is concerned, I think there was some discussion on cooperation in agriculture as well as on bio-fuels in the context of addressing climate change. The two countries will be celebrating 75 years of establishment of diplomatic relations which
is the platinum jubilee in 2023 and both leaders agreed that we should put in place some team, some preparation has to start in right earnest to prepare for the celebrations
During Prime Minister’s bilateral meeting with the President of Turkey, there was some discussion on functional level exchanges which have taken place. There was a foreign office consultation a couple of months back. Some discussion also took place on how the
two countries can cooperate in defence manufacturing. There was a recognition that in terms of trade there were plenty of opportunities which needs to explored and in that context, in terms of exploring the opportunities in trade and investment it was decided
that the joint economic committee meeting between India and Turkey should take place as soon as possible. There was some discussion also on people to people contact under the ambit of civil aviation how more flights can be encouraged so that the people can
get to travel between the two countries in an easier manner.
As I mentioned that between these bilateral meetings there was a Prime Minister’s intervention in session –III on ‘Addressing inequalities, realizing an inclusive and sustainable world.’ It was a very short intervention, Prime Minister started by highlighting
‘Sabka Saath, Sabka Vikas and Sabka Vishwas.’
Prime Minister also underscored some of the women focused initiatives which have been launched by this government for example – Beti Bachao, Beti Padhao. He also spoke about the construction of toilets in India. He also spoke about how 78% of beneficiaries
of Mudra Scheme are women. He concluded by saying that India should resolve and we should resolve to build a new India and India’s huge demographic base will make a contribution to the achievement of SDGs at the global level.
We will be putting extracts from his speech on social media as well as on our website. So this is what I had to share. There is one more bilateral meeting which is going to take place with Australia and that basically will conclude Prime Minister’s three day
visit to Osaka to attend the G20 Summit. Thank you very much.
Question: Why did India opt out of or did not participate in the Osaka Declaration on digital economy.
Official Spokesperson, Shri Raveesh Kumar:
What I suggest is that we are planning a briefing by the Sherpa in the afternoon. That will be focused on areas outside the bilateral meetings and the multilateral and trilateral meetings, so all questions related to those aspects should be addressed to him.
So we are trying to still work out the time sometime in the afternoon for it.
Question: Turkish President ke saath meeting mein kya Pradhanmantri ne aatankwaad ka mudda uthaya ki nahi jis tarah se FATF kii meeting mein Pakistan ko rokane ke liye samarthan kiyaa tha, to kya ye mudda bhi utha?
(Did Prime Minister raise the issue of terrorism in the bilateral with Turkey as they supported in the FATF meeting to stop Pakistan, so was this issue raised?)
Official Spokesperson, Shri Raveesh Kumar: Aatankwaad ka jo mudda hai wo takreeban Prime Minister kii har ek bilateral meeting mein uthtaa hai aur usi sandarbh mein is meeting mein bhi uthaa. Specifically kisii cheez se
jodkar nahi par ye jaroor kaha gaya ki dono deshon ko is cheez ko milkar ladna padega aur is context mein main batana chaahunga ki ek meeting mein hai July mein, Joint Working Group on Counter Terrorism jo July mein hone waali hai aur ye kaha gaya ki us meeting
ke liye dono deshon ko achhe se taiyaar karni chaahiye aur muje lagta hai ki counter-terrorism ke antargat jitane bhi masle honge, jo bhi mudde honge wo isi Joint Working Group ke antargat uthega.
(The issue of terrorism is raised in almost all the bilateral meetings of the Prime Minister so in that context it was also raised in the bilateral with Turkey also. It was not discussed particularly in connection with something but it was indeed discussed
that both countries need to fight it jointly and in that context I would like to inform that there is Joint Working Group on terrorism which is going to meet in July and both sides have been asked that we must thoroughly prepare for this meeting and I think
any and every issue which deals with counter-terrorism will be discussed in this Joint Working Group meeting.)
Question: Prime Minister has said that there should be an international conference. He met so many leaders, how many countries or leaders have shown interest in this idea of Prime Minister?
Official Spokesperson, Shri Raveesh Kumar:
It is very difficult to keep a tab or count of how many countries have expressed interest. It is an issue which affects the mankind and I think this is an issue which has found resonance with the leaders across the entire spectrum.
We have to see, it is difficult to kind of calculate the number of leaders who actually have shown interest but I think whenever Prime Minister has raised this topic in his interaction with world leaders, both bilaterally as well as at the multilateral format,
I think there has been considerable interest and enthusiasm among the leaders.
Question: Did Turkey discuss the fallout of S400 deal because both countries are facing same situation related to sanctions, did we discuss that and secondly with Indonesia, regarding deepening of maritime cooperation,
was there discussion on the Sabang port that India is trying to collaborate?
Official Spokesperson, Shri Raveesh Kumar:
With Turkey the discussion was very broad as to how the two countries can cooperate on the defence side. You know that these meetings are on the sidelines and you don’t get lot of time to discuss these matters in detail. So specifically I can’t answer from
this platform but there was a general discussion as to how two countries can cooperate in defence manufacturing and see if there is any possibility of working together.
On Indonesia, there was a discussion. You may be aware that there was some Business Forum which was organized between the two chambers of commerce in Andaman & Nicobar Islands, in Port Blair, few months ago and also to see if there can be some kind of maritime
linkage between the two countries. I mean the Western most part of Indonesia, the province of Aceh and Andaman & Nicobar Islands, we have mentioned in the past that for the development of both Andaman & Nicobar Islands as well for the Province of Aceh it will
be easier for them to cooperate with each other for their own development. So some discussion took place in that regard.
Question: Prime Minister met several world leaders over the last two days. I want to ask you what was the response of world leaders to the proposal of International Conference on Terrorism?
Official Spokesperson, Shri Raveesh Kumar: I just answered precisely the same question. As I said the proposal found resonance. I think it has to be understood what conference we are talking about. Basically the view is
that there is a conference which is taking place on several subjects, now why can’t we have a conference on a topic which the entire world is facing at this point of time, which is a scourge and Prime Minister has flagged this in his several bilateral meetings
and from the response I can tell you that it was quite encouraging because of course it is a topic which nobody can ignore. I think it has found resonance, it did find mention in several of Prime Minister’s interventions but at this point of time, to keep
a number as to how many countries participate.
Question Contd.: Was there a declaration of any sorts?
Official Spokesperson, Shri Raveesh Kumar:
No declaration but you see this is a new idea and this is something which is being explored and we will see how to take it from here.
Question: ………….. Inaudible …………..
Official Spokesperson, Shri Raveesh Kumar: Which session are you talking about? I can tell you that Prime Minister had several bilateral meetings with world leaders yesterday and today, the matter has come up in some of
the meetings. I am not very sure if Prime Minister intervened as part of the G20 on this matter, I don’t think there is a session specifically on this particular topic, so I won’t be able to answer that question but my understanding is that there was no specific
topic on this particular subject.
Thank you all very much for joining.
(Concludes)