Press Conference of Minister of State for External Affairs held at 1630 hours on 7th April 2008, at Vigyan Bhavan Annexe

07/04/2008

Official Spokesperson (Mr Navtej Sarna): Good evening everybody and apologies for keeping you waiting. The hon. Ministers were in discussions till exactly one minute ago and we have pulled the hon. Minister of State, Shri Anand Sharma straight from the Council of Ministers here to brief you. Without further ado I will request the Minister to kindly address the press.

Minister of State (Shri Anand Sharma): Thank you, Navtej.

Friends, as JS(XP) has mentioned, the reasons for the delay were beyond our control. We had a marathon session today of the Ministerial Meeting. All the participating countries represented by their Foreign Ministers and the Members of the Delegations which do include senior officials, that is the Foreign Secretaries of the concerned countries; the Heads of Missions; and the Heads of Indian Missions of the countries which are participating in the first ever India-Africa Forum Summit.

This Summit has generated tremendous interest in Africa, in India and also attracted worldwide attention. Given the fact that India and Africa together constitute one-third of world’s population, India and the African continent enjoy a special relationship which is based on equality and mutual respect, this Summit meeting which will be attended by many Heads of States and Heads of Governments of the countries which will be participating in this Forum Summit and also in a few cases by the Vice-Presidents or Senior Ministers who are leading the respective country delegations.

The arrival of the Heads of States or the Leaders of the Delegation has started yesterday itself. Since this morning we have had a few more arrivals starting with the President of Ghana to the former Chair of the Africa Union the Prime Minister of Burkina Faso, the President of Senegal, the President of Uganda, the President of South Africa, are arriving within the next few hours.

As we had mentioned earlier on the occasion of the launch of the website and subsequently in the XP Division’s handouts, the idea of this Summit was first mooted in the year 2006. India had expressed a wish to deepen its engagement with African continent in a structured format. This was a proposal that the AU had endorsed and it crystallized during the visit of Prof. Alpha Konare, the Chairman of the AU Commission, in December 2006. Since then the Joint Working Groups have met to work out the modalities and the format of participation was agreed between the AU Commission and India as proposed by the AU to ensure that all regions are represented in this first Forum Summit which is definitely different and one of its kind. Different because is the AU leadership has pre-selected the participation. It is the five founding countries of NEPAD; as South Africa, Nigeria, Senegal, Algeria, Egypt and Ethiopia as the Chair of the NEPAD Implementation Committee and we have the eight RECs, the Regional Economic Comm unities. Besides these eight, we also have the current Chair of the Africa Union that is the President of Tanzania, who again will be arriving later this evening; and the immediate past Chair that is President of Ghana to which I had made a reference earlier.

The Ministers’ Meeting had discussed in detail the areas of priority engagement and also the two documents which will be considered and adopted at the Summit of the Heads of States and Governments and the Leaders of the Delegations. Tomorrow and day after at the concluding Plenary, these two will be unveiled. I am happy to share with you that there is complete agreement between India and the African leadership on the priority areas of our multisectoral partnership and the steps to be taken to consolidate the same. The two documents which have been finalized and sealed now, frozen until the Heads unveil them day after are – Cooperation Framework between India and Africa, and a Joint Declaration of the Heads.

Both the sides are of this considered view that the Summit is not only historic but will give a new dimension and momentum to the partnership that is there and evolving between Africa and India.
Thank you.

Question: You said that areas of priority engagement have been identified. Could you just throw a little light on what those areas are?

Minister of State for External Affairs: Sure. One of them is capacity building, skills development and human resources development. Another is agriculture and food security. This would include crop diversification, water management, capacity-building in agriculture and building institutions of agricultural research. The next is economic cooperation. The trade between India and Africa has exceeded 30 billion dollars now. It has increased six-fold in the last five years and has enormous potential to grow further. The next is education and ICT, particularly the full roll out now of the Pan-African E-Network Project. All the Foreign Ministers without any exception have acknowledged with appreciation India’s steadfast contribution in Africa’s development, particularly the significance of this Pan-African E-Network Project for which there is a dedicated satellite. It is a Project fully funded by India to connect Sub-Saharan Africa, to enable Africa to bridge the digital divide. It is a revolutionary leap to l ink the institutions, particularly the major universities in Africa with the major Universities of India, the major hospitals identified in different regions of Africa with super-specialty hospitals in India. Let me add here that that has already taken place. Many Universities, hospitals and super-specialty hospitals stand linked. This was operationalised from Ethiopia last year. The satellite hub will very soon be operational out of Senegal.

The other areas are: infrastructure development; capacity-building in industry particularly small, micro and medium enterprises; climate change; and energy security. The details of how we propose to go about it will be there in the Framework of Cooperation between India and Africa and also in the Joint Declaration.

Question: In what way can India and Africa collaborate in global fora on global issues? On UN Reforms, is there a possibility of harmonizing India’s position with that of African countries?

Minister of State for External Affairs: Both India and Africa are agreed in principle that the multilateral organizations are in need of reforms. By multilateral organization we refer to the United Nations. This did figure up in the Ministerial Meeting today. Both India and the African leadership strongly feel that the United Nations reforms must be all encompassing to make its organs truly representative of the contemporary realities and also democratic in composition. For that the expansion of the Security Council both in permanent and non-permanent category is agreed in principle. India has throughout made it clear that India will support the AU consensus on the African countries’ candidate for the UN Security Council. India and Africa have also agreed, or are in agreement, that the other institutions particularly the Bretton Woods institutions, the IMF and the World Bank, also need to change and take into consideration the altered or changed political and economic architecture of the world. We are also in agreement over the position that we have taken on the issue of climate change particularly the principle of common but differentiated responsibilities so that the process of development of the developing countries is not interrupted in any manner and there is a transfer of both of clean development mechanisms, transfer of technology and transfer of resources. We have common position and we also have a very firm and shared position in the WTO, in the Doha Development Round, where we are determined to protect the interests of Asia, Africa and Latin America, the developing countries, in the agriculture sector, particularly in respect of trade distorting subsidies, or price distorting subsidies, and the domestic support which agriculture produce has in the developed countries, considering the fact that four-fifths of the agricultural workforce of the world comes from the developing countries.

Question: You said that India would support the consensus candidate of the African Union. Are you also hopeful of getting similar consensus support for India’s candidature for the United Nations Security Council?

Minister of State for External Affairs: First of all, let me tell you that was India’s position. As far as Africa’s position is concerned, there has been unanimity in the African position at the country level as well as the regional organizations which have come out in unequivocal support for India’s rightful claim to be there in the expanded UN Security Council as the largest democracy on this planet. That is African formulation.

Question: Mr. Minister, India today is a billion dollar economy and we now have 300 billion dollars worth of foreign exchange reserves. Is there any plan by the Government of India to launch an India Fund for Africa’s Development of a few billion dollars? Are you likely to announce such a thing?

Minister of State for External Affairs: We are already engaged with Africa. You would know that we have our own programme, which is Aid to Africa. We are also engaged with the Regional Organizations (RECs as we call them). We also have the dedicated lines of credit with NEPAD, with TEAM-9, with ECOVAS. The Pan-African E-Network, which I just referred to, is entirely a gift of India and its people to Sub-Saharan Africa. It is funded by the Government of India. In addition to that we have the ITEC programme which has made a huge impact in Africa on the training in skills, human resource development and capacity-building. Regarding our own economy and the size which you referred as a trillion dollar plus economy, yes, India and Africa are committed to an inclusive and sustainable pattern of growth to work together. That is important because much is required to be done in both India and Africa.

Question: Sir, India is likely to announce a very large grant and a line of credit which is ten times more than that in the near future.

Minister of State for External Affairs: I have no idea. As I said, that is entirely the prerogative of the Indian Prime Minister.

Question: I know. I just want to ask my question, Sir. What does India benefit from this grant and line of credit? That was my question. I would like to seek a clarification which is a little unrelated to this. This relates to the events in Jeddah recently. Is there any talk of …

Minister of State for External Affairs: No, no. This is only about the Africa-Forum Summit. That you can ask me separately.

To respond to the first part of your question, India and Africa have a special bond. We are committed to a partnership or to be partners in each other’s development. When we engage each other we are neither looking at gains nor are we seeking to compete with anyone.

Question: Mr. Minister, you have said that the Foreign Ministers have come to a complete agreement on the priority areas, and two documents have been completed and they are awaiting ratification of the Heads of States. Does the issue of balance of trade feature in these two documents?

Minister of State for External Affairs: You will appreciate that I should not be commenting on any aspect of these two documents. I just told you that we have a deepening economic engagement which has increased six-fold in the last five-six years, which has exceeded 30 billion dollars. I can also share with you that Indian investments in a big way are also adding to this robust economic exchange. The figure which I gave you does not include the investments in various sectors. That surely can be made available to you. There are various documents that have been published, magazines dedicated for this first Summit, which would give you the details and the projections. Though they may not contain the last year’s figures which have been just collated.

Question: You mentioned food security. There might be an argument made that India’s decision to ban rice exports and to substantially bulk up on buffer stocks of wheat may potentially hurtful for Africa in the sense that it has the potential to increase the global commodity prices. If you could respond to that criticism in the spirit of this discussion and perhaps also to … suggestion that what needs to be done is get the Doha deal through?

Minister of State for External Affairs: As far as India’s decision that you have referred to, that is not in the context of any region. That is a policy decision which the Government of India has made, which is unrelated to our engagement with Africa. The reality, painful that it is, before us, before Africa and before the rest of the world, is that we are facing a galloping food crisis in the world. When I referred to food security and agricultural productivity that we have agreed as one of the topmost priorities for Africa and India to work together, to create institutions and to ensure that Africa too accesses and embraces the latest technology to go in for a green revolution, because it is a rich continent when it comes to its soil, so that the agricultural productivity can increase. In case of India, not dealing directly with this subject, we have been a self-sufficient country since the Green Revolution as far as our food grains are concerned. We as a nation for decades have been in a position to feed ourselves. Though the population has increased, it has increased three-fold since our Independence, but the food productivity has increased many fold. Of late, there is a challenge because of the changing weather patterns and crop patterns. Therefore, it is equally important for countries to take preemptive measures because India itself was compelled to import wheat. Not that we did not have enough wheat but we had to recently, as recent as last year, to keep the buffer.

As a matter of policy, India’s keeps a buffer of at least six million tonnes of wheat alone plus a buffer of cereals and another seven to eight million tonnes of rice. It did get affected because of what I said earlier. These are the decisions which the Governments always review once you have enough. We have always shared when we have surplus. But for any country when you need to keep a buffer and you do not have that margin, the wisdom of the decision to act otherwise, that is to export, will be questioned and very harshly so. So, I do not think it should be related to that.

Question: Mr. Minister, some are of the view that … this kind of engagement you are having with Africa at this time is because of your sudden realization that China has moved into Africa. They are saying that what you are doing is not for any altruistic move but because of the need to rival China.

Minister of State for External Affairs: Thank you for asking me this question. Let me quickly respond to you.

This skepticism emanates from those who have not been adequately informed of the history of India’s engagement with Africa. I would advise skeptics to go back to Gandhi. He did not think of competing. Nor did Nehru when he said what he did in 1946. Nor was any competition or vested concerns that had guided India at the dawn of our Independence to take the issue of racial discrimination in South Africa to the United Nations. India has not suddenly discovered Africa. Our people have known each other over millennia. When India itself was confronted with monumental challenges of development, particularly in the 1950s and 1960s, India had started the ITEC programme; India had started the special scholarship schemes. Even today when we said that both Africa and India have shared challenges, we have agreed to work together. We believe in capacity-building and for Africa value addition of the resources which Africa has. I may also underscore that the spirit in which, the spirit of South-South cooperation, India has engaged Africa, the same ethical practices have been embraced by the Indian private sector too. Indian private sector investments in Africa, whether it is in the IT sector, whether it is in pharmaceuticals or agricultural projects, they have enabled people and empowered the young men and women of the countries in which they have set up the projects by training them, first bringing them to India to train or now training facilities there so that they can work in those projects.

So, wherever Indian public sector and private sector has gone, or is going, they are creating opportunities for people to be employable in those projects. Every project which has come up or which is coming up has four-fifths, if not more, of the work force and the executives from the African countries. So, it is both generating incoming, creating infrastructure and also creating employment. I can say without any doubt that India’s engagement in Africa is time-tested, it is distinct, it is different and it cannot be compared to any other country.

Question: …Inaudible…

Minister of State for External Affairs: Both of us have our own strengths. India has its strengths. We are also not devoid of resources. I feel that most important of all the resources in this world are the human resources. Without human resources any other resource would be meaningless. That is what India is seeking to create and share. Our first priority has been and even now is, and day after tomorrow when it is declared, the first priority remains capacity-building and skills development. I think that is the greatest resources. If you have everything but you do not have the capability, the human resources, the skills! Second is infrastructure. India will help Africa develop its own infrastructure. Thirdly, we would like to have value addition. For what Africa has we would like to have value addition. Even if we go in for development of the natural resources, we will go in for joint development as partners in progress. Those will be partnership ventures. That is what India supports and encourages. Th at is what our philosophy is.

Question: You said there are human resources which you would like to develop.

Minister of State for External Affairs: Not only human resources, I am talking of natural resources also. I am making it very clear that India believes in the philosophy of jointly developing to the mutual benefit of both Africa and India.

Question: Any example of natural resources?

Minister of State for External Affairs: Well they are in abundance in both the countries. Even when you talk of agriculture, let me give you one example, there is need of value addition both in India and in Africa, agro-processing, food-processing, containing post-harvest losses. In my country post-harvest losses are to the tune of 30 per cent. We are talking of food security. So, they are issues where we need to work together and ensure value addition.

Question: Genetically modified also?

Minister of State for External Affairs: I am not an agricultural expert but I say that all steps have to be taken to enhance productivity and also to ensure that Africa also benefits from latest technology to become self-sufficient in food output.

Director (XP) (Ms Nagma M. Mallick): Thank you very much. I would like to thank the Minister of State for External Affairs for sparing his time. I thank all of you for your presence here. I look forward to your active participation, to your coverage over the next few days of the India-Africa Forum Summit.
Thank you very much