Transcript Of Media Briefing By Foreign Secretary On President’s Forthcoming Visit To Russia

Official Spokesperson (Shri Vikas Swarup): Good evening and welcome to this press briefing on President’s forthcoming visit to Russia.

We have with us today Foreign Secretary Dr. S. Jaishankar; we have Shri Venu Rajamony, Press Secretary to the President; and we have Mr. Sambhu S. Kumaran, Joint Secretary (Eurasia); and I am Vikas Swarup, JS (XP). Without any further ado, may I turn it over to Foreign Secretary?

 Good afternoon. I am here to brief you about the President’s visit to Russia which begins tomorrow. The President would be travelling on the 7thand returning from Russia on the 11th. The visit is at the invitation of President Putin, and this is to commemorate the 70thanniversary of Victory Day to mark the victory of Russia in the Second World War.

This would be President’s first visit to Russia as President. He would be accompanied by the Minister of State for Railways Shri Manoj Sinha and of course Senior Officials. He would have a delegation of Vice Chancellors and Heads of national institutes with him. The main event as I said is the Victory celebration where we would have a 75-member Indian Army contingent from the Grenadiers who would be taking part in the military parade in Moscow.

Apart from the President’s participation in these events, he would be holding a bilateral meeting with President Putin. He will also have a separate meeting with Rectors of important Russian universities and Vice Chancellors of important Indian universities who are travelling with him. This would be held at the Lomonosov Moscow State University.

In terms of outcomes, we are looking at an agreement in science and technology which would be signed by the Department of Science and Technology and the Russian Science Foundation. There are also eight MoUs which would be signed by higher education institutions.

The President would be receiving an honourary Doctorate conferred by the Diplomatic Academy of Russia. During his visit he would be meeting leading Russian Indologists. Finally, he would be inaugurating the Namaste Russia cultural festival which would commence at the time of his visit.

In terms of India-Russia relations, I think all of you know that this is a very special and privileged strategic partnership and it is certainly a relationship that is characterised by mutual trust, mutual understanding and unique people-to-people relations.

We have had 15 annual summits in the current format with the Russian President. Recently during the Russian President’s visit to India in December, the two countries agreed on a vision for strengthening the partnership over the next decade. So, right now what we have ongoing between India and Russia are the discussions and activities which are designed to translate that vision into outcomes.

Just to give you the highlights of some aspects of our relationship, defence cooperation of course is very much at the centre of our relationship. We are today trying to move towards joint research and development, and joint manufacturing. We have a tradition of joint exercises with Russia that are expanding.

Civilian nuclear energy cooperation is another very longstanding area of cooperation with Russia. We had agreed during the December summit to set up more joint working groups and these have now started to happen. The first Working Group has met; the others would be meeting soon. We hope to take forward the intended expansion of civil nuclear energy cooperation with Russia.

Space too is an important area of cooperation with Russia. We have been working on space applications, space transportation, satellite navigation, and space science and planetary exploration. Recently the Chairman of Roscosmos, the Russian Space Agency, was here.

On the economic and trade side, we have a Joint Study Group. The intent of that is to explore the conclusion of a Comprehensive Economic Cooperation Agreement between India and the Eurasian Economic Union of which Russia is a member. The preparatory meeting of that has taken place.

Among the other significant areas of economic cooperation with Russia, we are working with them to increase direct diamond exports to India, that is also work under progress, as also operationalisation of the International North-South Transport Corridor. And we do hope that Russian investments in India in different infrastructure projects, in smart cities, in Make in India programmes, would grow.

On the science and technology side, as I informed you we will be signing an agreement between DST and the Russian Science Foundation, which is on basic and exploratory scientific research.

On the culture side I mentioned Namaste India. On the education side, different universities and institutes would be signing bilateral agreements. This was something which was envisaged in December when the Summit took place.

Overall, again Russia is one of our closest international partners. It is a country which has supported our candidature for the permanent seat in the UN Security Council. We consult very closely on G20 issues, on East Asia Summit issues. We are both members of the BRICS and of the RIC. Russia is supportive of India’s membership of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation. Even on the global regime memberships - NSG, MTCR, Australia Group, Wassenaar - Russia has been broadly supportive.

Our positions on international issues are very very highly convergent. Particularly I think we share common positions on countering terrorism. Russia also supports the adoption of a Comprehensive Convention on International Terrorism. That is broadly the description of the state of our relationship and of the programme that the Hon. President would be undertaking while in Moscow.

As a point of general information I would say that as per our current information there would be 16 Presidents who would be coming to Moscow for the Victory Day commemoration apart from a number of Vice Presidents, Prime Ministers and Foreign Ministers.

I think that is the broad picture. If you have any questions, I would be delighted to answer.

Official Spokesperson:Thank you, Sir. I now turn to the Press Secretary to the President in case he needs to add something to what Foreign Secretary has just said.

Press Secretary to President (Shri Venu Rajamony):Good evening ladies and gentlemen. Thank you, Vikas. Thank you, Sir. Just a few points very quickly.

As has already been explained by the Foreign Secretary, the President considers Russia an extremely important country, and the relationship a very special and unique relationship. He is extremely happy to visit Russia once again, the first time in his capacity as President of India.

The President believes that the function, the main event he is going for is a very important commemoration. The Second World War was one of the most determining events of the 20thcentury. The role of Russian soldiers and civilians changed the course of war and not only the outcome of the war but also the future of the world. This was achieved at the cost of tremendous suffering on the part of the Soviet people and the Russian nation at that point of time. And tens of thousands of Indian soldiers also sacrificed their lives in this war. So, the President is very happy to be part of this commemorative event which actually recognises the monumental contributions of Russia to the victory over Nazism. He is particularly happy that an Indian military contingent for the very first time will be part of this victory parade.

This trip for the President is also a down the memory lane trip. The President has visited Russia many many times. He has interacted with Russian leaders in various capacities over long years. In particular, he was the designated representative of the Government of India to attend the 50thanniversary celebrations in 1995. As External Affairs Minister he visited Moscow, he visited

St. Petersburg, he saw the parade which was organised at that time. He particularly remembers very fondly the contingent of veterans who had actually participated in the war, who also were part of the parade in 1995. He also went to St. Petersburg at that time and paid homage at the Martyrs’ Memorial which is established there.

The Foreign Secretary briefed about the fact that leaders of a number of higher education institutions are part of the delegation. There will be discussions, there will be agreements. This, as many of you would be aware, is part of a continuing focus by the President ever since he assumed office on improving the quality of higher education within the country. Almost every foreign trip that he has taken, he has had Vice Chancellors and Directors of IITs, NITs go along with him.

He has also been organising every year conferences of Central university Vice Chancellors, IIT Directors, NITs, etc., here in Rashtrapati Bhavan to discuss the state of higher education in the country. One of the important recommendations out of all these conferences is the fact that our institutions need to expand their international contacts and international linkages. So, this visit and this delegation accompanying the President hopefully will provide a major impetus to helping our institutions expand their contacts across the world.

Lastly, the Foreign Secretary mentioned that the President will be receiving an honourary Doctorate on this visit. This is the third honourary Doctorate that he would be receiving. The first one was from Dhaka University in 2013; last year he received honourary Doctorate from Calcutta University; and this is the third honourary Doctorate that he is receiving.

Some of the recollections the President had in the context of this visit were regarding Rabindranath Tagore who has had a long and abiding relationship with Russia. Tagore visited Russia in 1930 and wrote a number of letters back to various people, his relatives, his friends, which were published in Bengali as Letters from Russia. It took a lot of time for it to be translated into English because the British thought that it was very critical of the British Administration. It was also not published in Russian because the Soviets thought that it was critical of the Soviet Administration.

In 1930 when Tagore visited, Tagore sang the Jana Gana Mana during a visit to Young Pioneers Commune. And in 1941, just before the end of the war, Tagore was extremely concerned with the progress of the war. And there are records showing that he was very unhappy when the Soviet forces fell back and he was extremely happy when the Soviet forces advanced. He was fully confident that victory over Fascism and Nazism would be achieved at that time.

These are some of the issues that the President would be talking about in his interactions with various leaders during this commemorative function.

Thank you.

Official Spokesperson: We will now have a short Q&A session.

Question: We have a very good relationship on nuclear issues with Russia. What are the hiccups now that we are taking so much time in concluding and Joint Commission meeting?

Foreign Secretary: There are no hiccups as such. I think what we are looking at with Russia is additional units of nuclear power as well as a larger, broader programme of a much more ambitious nuclear programme. But we had agreed that we need to in a sense discuss some more expanded programmes. We would have to engage in a much closer collaborative conversation. So, in fact of the three Joint Working Groups that were agreed on, one was on nuclear power, one was on fuel cycle, and one was on science and technology. So, the intent is that if these Joint Working Groups meet, their discussions would allow the nuclear cooperation to unfold more vigorously. There are conceptually no particular obstacles for the growth of nuclear cooperation with Russia.

Question: You mentioned about the direct import of diamonds by India. In thePutin-Modi meeting last time it was decided that there should be direct sale of diamonds to India. What is the problem? Why has it not materialised?

Foreign Secretary: My understanding here is that to materialise it requires mutually acceptable arrangements between the two countries, which would be a regulatory framework for the direct import of diamonds, and those are still under discussion. So, this is work in progress, and our expectation is that this would materialise.

Question: Sir, you spoke about military relations. But there have been a few concerns in the past few months, especially on Russia exporting some of their equipment to Pakistan. A few days back we had reports that they are exporting their latest air defence missile system to Chinese. Are these topics that will be discussed during the meeting? Will we raise our concerns?

Foreign Secretary: I would make two points to you. One is that we often use the word time-tested, we use the word trusted. I think those are really words which could literally apply to India-Russia relations. This is a relationship which is of course between the Governments but it is something which is very deep. I think the average Indian has a high degree of empathy with Russia. So, in terms of the strategic intent and character of the relationship, I do not think anybody would really dispute that this is one of our strongest strategic partnerships.

In terms of our own defence cooperation with Russia, which is very solid, again it has a historical basis, there is a fairly robust menu currently under discussion between the two systems. Traditionally many of these issues tend to be resolved or discussed really in mechanisms which are dedicated to that.

Where this visit is concerned, obviously the President would focus part of it is the commemoration ceremony, but in the bilateral meeting with Putin our expectation is that everything bilateral, everything regional, whatever is topical, bilateral, regional, global, will all come up for discussions. Generally I would hesitate to predict what leaderships discuss.

Question: You mentioned that Minister of State of Railways is accompanying the President. Would any joint projects be discussed in railways?

Foreign Secretary: We do have discussions between India and Russia on Railways. But on this particular case the intent is not sectoral. I think the Minister is accompanying the President because it is a tradition in our system that whenever the President travels abroad, a Minister accompanies the President.

Question: You mentioned about cooperation of universities between our countries. Could you please specify what would be the main interest for the Indian and Russian universities during this trip of Mr. Mukherjee, and which universities would be represented from Indian side?

Foreign Secretary: Actually I can do better than that, I can even give you the universities on the Russian side. We have on the Indian side, IIT Bombay, IIT Madras, IIT Delhi, University of Delhi, the Institution of Engineers, the Indian Statistical Institute. So, we have three IITs, we have Delhi University, Institution of Engineers, and the Indian Statistical Institute. In the case of Russia, my understanding is that it is Tomsk State University, the Ural Federal University, the Tomsk Polytechnic University, the Skolkova Institute of Science and Technology, the Higher School of Economics of Moscow, the Lomonosov Moscow State University, and the Russian Union of Scientific and Engineering Associations.

So, we expect during this visit to have nine agreements concluded. One as I said in science and technology, and eight between the higher education institutions.

Question: Sir, Richard Verma has today spoken out against the Indian position on NGOs. Would you like to react to that, Sir?

Official Spokesperson: Shrinjoy, Richard Verma is the Ambassador of the United States. This is a briefing on the President’s visit to Russia. I think we will let it rest at that.

Foreign Secretary: I think that is the answer.

Thank you very much.