Official Spokesperson (Shri Vikas Swarup):Welcome to this briefing on President’s forthcoming visit to Sweden and Belarus. We have with us today Mr. Shambhu Kumaran, Joint Secretary (Eurasia), who looks after Belarus; Secretary (West), Mr. Navtej Sarna; Press Secretary to the President Mr. Venu Rajamony; and Mr. Rahul Chhabra, Joint Secretary (Europe) who looks after Sweden.
The way we will handle it is, Secretary (West) will make an opening statement, thereafter Press Secretary to the President will add something to that, and then we will throw open the floor to questions. With that the floor is yours, Secretary Sir.
Secretary (West) (Shri Navtej Sarna): Thank you Vikas, and good afternoon everybody.
Rashtrapatiji will be paying a state visit to Sweden from 31st May to the 2ndof June. Thereafter he will be going on to Belarus on a state visit, reaching there on the 2nd of June and staying there till the 4thof June. Both of these, as I have said, are state visits by the President with full ceremonies involved. Naturally his host in Sweden will be His Majesty King Carl XVI Gustaf who, as you know, has been the ruling Monarch of Sweden for the last 42 years. Sweden incidentally is a Constitutional monarchy and a Parliamentary democracy.
The President will be accompanied by the Minister of State for Chemicals and Fertilisers Shri Hansraj Gangaram Ahir, as well as Members of Parliament Shri Ghulam Nabi Azad and Shri Ashwani Kumar, Member Rajya Sabha and Lok Sabha respectively. He would also be accompanied, besides the delegation of senior officials, by say about seven Vice Chancellors and Directors of leading Indian universities. And over 60 business leaders will be going along side, separately of course but on the occasion of the two visits to conduct a Business Forum with both countries.
Let us go through the programmatic aspects so that we have that in place. As I said, he leaves on 31st May for Sweden. There will be a ceremonial welcome by the royal couple. And thereafter he will be interacting with members of the Indian community.
In Sweden, you would be interested to know, we have about 9,000 people of Indian origin in terms of being PIO or OCI cardholders; and you have another 9,000 who are Indian passport holders and are there as professionals, IT professionals, in the hospitality industry and so on.
He will also have meetings and interactions with Their Majesties King and Queen on several occasions, as well as a meeting with the Prime Minister of Sweden Mr. Stefan Lofven, the Speaker of the Swedish Parliament, and the Leader of Opposition Mrs. Anna Kinberg Batra. There will also be a state banquet.
On the 2nd of June, the Rashtrapati will visit Karolinska Institute which is a foremost leading institute of medicine and related studies, and he would also visit the Uppsala University which is one of the oldest European universities and it has a great tradition. Keeping in view the substantive issues that will be discussed, he will also visit a Swedish smart city and be briefed on how it works in different aspects of civic governance.
In terms of the importance in the bilateral relations of this visit, I would like to reiterate that we have had diplomatic relations since 1949 based on common democratic values and a relationship which has been growing steadily particularly in economic terms as we will detail to you. But this is the first ever Head of State visit from India to Sweden. In that respect it is a landmark visit. There have of course been Prime Ministerial level visits, there have been several Ministerial level visits and official level visits, and also several important Parliamentary delegations have been exchanged.
In terms of trade and investment, I can share with you that for the last ten years this has been the main driver in quite a dramatic improvement in the figures involved. We are already reaching about USD 2.5 billion of trade. But that does not tell the full story because you have about a 170 Swedish companies, largely multinational corporations, which have been very active in India over the years, and you have about 50 Indian companies which are working out of Sweden.
Sweden is today the twelfth largest contributors of FDI to India. Even the Indian companies have invested up to USD 800 million in Sweden. India is today the third largest trade partner after China and Japan in Asia for Sweden.
At the moment there is a very fortuitous and a very potentially fruitful matching of the economic requirements of India in terms of the several programmes that have been launched by the government, whether you see Make in India, Skill Development, Swachh Bharat, Digital India, the Smart Cities urbanization programme; and Swedish capability in specifically these areas, particularly in urbanization, water management, renewable energy, education, and of course information technology.
We expect a number of agreements to be signed at the government level, at the educational institutions level and at the business level during the visit. Some of the areas could be micro, small and medium industries, polar research. Incidentally Sweden has supported India’s application for becoming Observer to the Arctic Council two years ago, and for that we are very appreciative.
There will be agreements signed possibly on visa waiver for diplomatic passport holders, health and so on. Health remains a very important area in which we have flourishing cooperation with Sweden, particularly mental health.
Sweden is one of the top three innovative nations in the world and, therefore, is home to key research for technologies, services and products. And India is an ideal destination for expanding these technological breakthroughs on a large scale.
On the cultural side there is a tremendous goodwill that prevails between the two countries and in particular I think on the visit to the Uppsala University should be seen also in the cultural connect that it has. Rabindranath Tagore’s bust was installed in the Uppsala University last year. He visited the university during his visits to Sweden in 1921 and 1926 after he had been granted the Nobel Prize not only as the first Indian but as the first non-European in 1930. This is broadly the programme and the context of the visit to Sweden.
He will continue on to Belarus. Again this will be the first Presidential visit to Belarus. President Lukashenko of Belarus has visited India twice, in 1997 and 2007. In terms of the programme, it will include talks with President Lukashenko in both restricted and delegation level formats. There will be a banquet luncheon.
The President would plant a tree in the Ally of the Guests of Honour and the Place of Independence, and he will place a wreath at the Victory Monument.
The two Presidents will address a joint business conference on June 4. There would be a formal launching of the Grodno-II Power Project. It is a power project which has been refurbished by BHEL on a line of credit of USD 55 million from India. There will be MoUs and agreements signed including between the PSUs as well as at a government level covering different areas like textiles, power, education, and so on.
The President would also unveil a bust of Mahatma Gandhi at the Belarus State University, and he will be honoured with a Professor of honoris causa degree by the University.
He would be meeting the Prime Minister in a call by the Prime Minister on him on June 3, as well as the Chairman of the Council and the Chairman of the House of Representatives, the two Houses of the National Assembly of Belarus.
There would be also agreements in the field of SEVIK and the Ministry of Finance, Bureau of Indian Standards as well as in information between Prasar Bharati and National State Television. These details will be given to you as soon as the agreements are completely finalized and ready.
To give you a context of the relationship, it has been a warm and friendly and cordial relationship characterized by growing trade and economic ties. I do not how many of you would recall, a lot of tractors from Belarus in the decades gone by, heavy machinery, dumpster trucks have been coming from Belarus.
Belarus used to be in most industrially developed republics in the former Soviet Union and that tradition has carried on after its independence. In fact it used to be called the assembly line country, and that is why there is a large scope today for joint ventures between Belarus and India under the Make in India programme in terms of heavy transportation vehicles, in terms of tractors, in terms of other agricultural machinery and of course defence.
The trade between the two countries stands at USD 400 million and it is significant because despite the number not being as big as it could be, Belarus is our main supplier of potash. Our exports are largely concentrated on pharmaceutical issues.
Besides the line of credit I have already mentioned we have also set up a Digital Learning Centre in Belarus at a cost of Rs.5 crore. This visit will certainly give a tremendous impetus to both the bilateral issues as well as, I must mention this, there is very good cooperation with Belarus in international fora. Belarus has supported us on the UN Security Council issue as well as in the Nuclear Supplier Group issue. And Belarus incidentally is the only European country which is a member of the Non-Aligned Movement.
So while you give some thought to that, I will ask Venu to chip in if he wants.
Press Secretary to President (Shri Venu Rajamony): Thank you, Sir. Good evening friends.
The President is extremely happy that he is visiting Sweden and Belarus both of which are countries that he will be visiting for the first time, he has not visited either country in any other capacity. As has already been explained, it will be the first ever Indian Head of State which would be visiting Sweden. And the President is happy that visit is happening at a time when relations are poised to enter a new phase with mutual economic benefits as the main driving force.
The President is convinced that there is great synergy between India and Sweden. Sweden has a great deal of expertise, capabilities, experience as well as leading multinationals with investible resources with an interest in investing in India or with a history of already operating in India in areas which are extremely important to India and where we have launched national programmes like the Smart Cities programme, the Digital India programme, the Skill India programme, etc. So, there is great scope to exploit the potential of this relationship.
The President is travelling with a high-level business delegation. Across the two countries, Sweden and Belarus, over 100 businessmen are going to travel and be there when the President visits. Today evening at six o’clock the President is going to meet with over 50 representatives of the business community who will be traveling and who will be there in these countries when he arrives there. And he hopes to spur and stimulate further cooperation between the businesses of the two countries.
Secretary has already mentioned the subject of innovation. President Mukherjee is going to complete three years of his Presidency and in the last three years innovation is a very important theme that he has picked up and he has been traveling the length and breadth of the country urging universities to set up innovation clubs, encouraging universities to establish contacts with grassroots entrepreneurs. And just a few months back for the first time ever Rashtrapati Bhavan was host to a festival of innovations which saw experts from all over the world as well as students and grassroots entrepreneurs come together for discussions, for exhibition, for exchange of experience, etc.
As is by now the pattern with the President, he is also taking an important academic delegation with him comprising Vice Chancellors and Heads of various educational institutions. As Secretary has already pointed out, they will interact with their counterparts, there will be agreements which are signed. Improving the quality of higher education in India is another major theme which President Mukherjee has picked up and has been actively advocating over the last three years. He hopes that this visit to Sweden and to Belarus and the fact that he has these large number of academic experts traveling with him will help further enhance the quality of higher education in India.
As far as Belarus is concerned, Secretary has already mentioned the strengths of Belarus. The President very fondly remembers that in the States of Punjab and Haryana in the 50s and 60s tractors were synonymous with the term Belarus because all the tractors used to come from there. Belarus already has a record of providing agricultural machinery to India, and there is great interest in trying to invest in India and be party to the Make in India programme.
So, the President hopes that his visit to Belarus will not only improve political relations and economic relations in general but will also prove to be an important step in advancing India’s Make in India programme and also because agriculture is an area, we import a large amount of potash from Belarus, we also import agricultural machinery. All these together will also significantly contribute to improving India’s food security.
Thank you.
Official Spokesperson:With that the floor is now open for questions. Please restrict yourselves to just one question. Please identify yourself and the organisation that you represent.
Question:I think there is some discontent on account of President’s interview given to Swedish media about carrying the Bofors issue in that interview. What the media report says is that India’s Ambassador to Sweden has gone to the extent of saying that if you carry this part, the visit may be called off. Will you enlighten us as to what is the status now?
Secretary (West): I have just spent the last twenty minutes telling you the status but I am happy to repeat it full twenty minutes if you like. We are keenly looking forward to the first ever visit of the President of India to Sweden and Belarus.
Press Secretary to President: I would just like to add that it is evident to you that preparations are fully under way for the visit of the President to Sweden and to Belarus.
Question:This question is also about the interview. The President is the Head of the Government. In your letter to that newspaper, nowhere have you denied that the President did use those words. It is a matter of detail on or off record. What I want to know is, does the Government of India believe that Bofors was indeed just something that the media highlighted?
Secretary (West): Okay, just let me do this once and I am not taking any more questions on this.
This subject is not relevant to the visit of the President of India to Sweden and Belarus. So, let us concentrate on what the visit is about. We are here to talk to you about the visit and I will be happy to talk to you about the visit at any length that you like.
Question (Gautam Lahiri, Bengali Daily Pratidin): India and Sweden have a long, so far as I know, defence cooperation. During this visit, will there be any discussion on the defence cooperation between India and Sweden?
Secretary (West): I think that is a very good question because, as you know, Sweden has certain capabilities and there has been cooperation. Now naturally there would be discussion on all aspects of Make in India, and defence is one part of possible cooperation with several countries under the Make in India regime and after the FDI baselines have been changed. So I am certain there would be a discussion but this is not a defence related visit.
It is an overall visit of the President of India in which broad discussions on possible cooperation in several areas, whether we take smart cities, renewable energy, defence and environment, international issues, regional issues, climate change, all this would be discussed. So, as part of that certainly there would be discussion.
Question (Sridhar, The Asian Age): Earlier Sweden had offered to sell its Gripen fighter aircraft to India and there have been reports recently that they have even offered to set up the assembly line production as part of the Make in India programme. Is there any indication that the Swedes will use this Presidential visit to sort of put the offer back on the table?
Secretary (West): I really cannot speak for what the Swedish side will say or not say. So we will have to wait to see how the visit goes on and how the talks progress. We will of course keep you briefed every time we have a delegation-level discussion or a President-to-President discussion. I hope you will be coming with us.
Question (S.M. Asif, Editor, In Dinon): Hamaara savaal aapse yeh hai ki Sweden aur India ke beech mein aap ne kaha ki nau hazaar PIOs or Indian community ke log rehte hain. Toh Sweden aur India ke beech mein kitna business abhi tak ho raha hai aur kitna business badhne ki ummeed hai?
Secretary (West): Asif sahab, abhi tak jo business hai vo USD 2.5 billion dollars ke tadad mein hai. Aur iske liye hum log koshish kar rahe hain ki is visit ke dauran ek naya target fix kiya jaye. Vo target kya hoga aur donon sides kis target par agree karenge, visit ke baad aapko zarur batayenge ya visit ke dauran hi bata denge.
Question (Srinjoy Chowdhury, Times Now): Sir, there is a BAE systems factory just outside Stockholm. That is where the Bofors gun is manufactured. Is there any talk of President Mukherjee visiting the factory? Is there any possibility of the issue of sale of Bofors guns, because the Swedes are still very interested in selling it to us, coming up during the visit?
Secretary (West): Srinjoy, I think you were in the room when I answered the last question. At the moment there is no plan of the President to visit any factory.
Question (Tripti Nath, Asahi Shimbun): You talked of flourishing cooperation between India and Sweden in the area of mental health. Could you tell us a little more about it? Is there any agreement between their health institutes and IHBAS here or something like that?
Secretary (West): We would be happy to give you the details if you like after this briefing. There is a Memorandum of Understanding and there has been good cooperation and exchange between relevant institutes involved. My colleagues will be happy to give you the details.
Question (Sanjeev Trivedi, News24): Sir, is prashn par Hindi mein savaal nahin hua hai. Main aapse bas itna janna chahta hun ki ek interview hua aur uske baad narazgi Sarkar ki taraf se jataayi gayi ki vo teesra savaal tha, aapne pehle savaal ke baare mein nahin likha, teesre savaal ke baare mein likha. Vaise bhi jab ki Rashtrapati vahan ja rahe hain, kahin na kahin ek jigyasa hai is baare mein ki kya aakhir ab bhi Bharat Sarkar harbour karti hai ki is masle ko nahin uthaya jaana chahiye tha, ya phir aap vyaktigat roop se aap log kyun itna zyada paranoid hain is savaal ko lene mein?
Secretary (West): Vyaktigat roop se aapne saari kahani to khud keh di, ab vyaktigat roop se main kya kahun aapse? Vyaktigat roop se main yahan se savaal ka javaab nahin de sakta, main baahar dunga aapko.
Question (Akhilesh Suman, Rajya Sabha TV): Since the Head of State is going for the first time to Sweden and Belarus, what is the major takeaway as far as Make in India is concerned?
Secretary (West): I think there will be major takeaways in terms of most of or all of the new programmes of the Government at the moment because, as I told you, Sweden has tremendous strengths in several issues which are of immediate interest to us. They have created smart cities and the President is going to visit one of them. So, they certainly will be a takeaway in terms of urbanisation. We hope that when we come back and after the discussions we can formalise this cooperation perhaps in the form of an MoU or a Joint Working Group or some other modality.
There will be takeaways in terms of renewable energy. Sweden is one of the leading proponents of renewable energy, very strong on environment. There will be takeaways in skill development. The President is visiting the university. So in several and all of these areas I think we can look forward to very positive results.
Question (Smita Sharma, India Today): Sorry, I have to go back to that question for one clarification because Peter Wolodarski, the Editor-in-Chief, accused that the Ambassador had called up the Daily and said, there was a threat in fact, that if they did not retract the interview the visit would be called off. Did the Ambassador say so? If yes, was it in a personal capacity? Otherwise, what changed for the President anyway to go ahead with the visit?
Secretary (West): I think, Smita, I am not going to pretend to be a fly on the wall on any telephone conversation that may or may not have taken place. The Spokesman adequately answered this question yesterday and gave you an immediate clarification on this specific aspect. The visit is on, it has been on all the time, and it is going to go on.
Official Spokesperson:And I may add, the Ambassador made no such threat.
Question:Sir, just a yes or no would be fine, I know you do not want to answer too many questions on this as is clear. But did the Ambassador ask, which is a very strong allegation, the Editor to delete those parts, to drop the parts on Bofors? Did he ask that, Sir? Yes, no, maybe?
Secretary (West): I have no idea about what the exact conversation was. The exact clarification that you sought was issued yesterday. A conversation like this on what exactly goes on between two people, like you and I have several discussions out here, I really cannot go and set that to be a critical factor in the decision of a Presidential visit to India. There has been no change in that decision, no change in that planning. And I would request you to see the main focus of this visit and to keep your eye on the main focus and not on trivia.
Official Spokesperson:There being no other questions, this press briefing comes to a close.