Transcript of Special briefing by Foreign Secretary on Prime Minister’s visit to Australia (May 24, 2023)

Shri Arindam Bagchi, Official Spokesperson:Good afternoon to all of you. Thank you for joining us here in Sydney on the last day of Prime Minister's visit here. He will be leaving later in the evening today, to give us a sense of the visit so far and the next couple of engagements, I have the privilege of welcoming Shri Vinay Kwatra, Foreign Secretary Sir. We also have on the dais Shri Manpreet Vohra, High Commissioner of India to Australia, as well as Paramita Tripathi, Joint Secretary Oceania in the Ministry of External Affairs. Sir, I would like to hand over to you now.

Shri Vinay Kwatra, Foreign Secretary:Thank you very much Arindam. And good afternoon all of you. We are just about coming to the end of Honorable Prime Minister of India's two day visit to Sydney. We still have two key elements of the program ahead of us. We have Prime Minister's engagement with the business and industrialist CEOs in a business roundtable, just in a little while from now and there after a formal dinner to be hosted by the Prime Minister of Australia later in the evening. But since we are not going to have too much time to do a structured presser afterwards, we thought we'll use this opportunity of a small gap in the program and do a very brief interaction with our friends from the media to run through what has thus far been a set of very intense and productive discussions during Prime Minister's ongoing visit. So as you all know, Prime Minister started his visit day before yesterday evening when he arrived. Yesterday's engagements essentially were focused on his meetings with the select CEOs. These were one to one meetings. Thereafter he had a set of engagement with the high achievers from a cross section of the Australian society and later in the evening you all witnessed it live. He addressed the community and Diaspora in Sydney where of course he was joined and he's very grateful for that. He was joined by the Honorable Prime Minister of Australia, Senior Ministers from his government, members of the local legislature, senior councilors, other elected officials and of course leaders from the community. Broadly, if I was to capture the overall sense, thrust of the meeting, I would describe them as very frank, honest, to the extent, focused, outcome driven and very very productive in terms of their specific achievements in that sense. In terms of the elements of discussions which the Honorable Prime Minister had today with the Honorable Prime Minister of Australia, during his call on with the Governor General and during the call on by the Leader of Opposition on Honorable Prime Minister of India. I could list roughly ten or eleven key areas of partnership that the two Prime Minister spent some time, taking not only just assessment of the progress in those areas over a period of last one year ever since they met first in May last year, but also chalked out what they could focus on in months and years ahead. Besides, of course continuing with the continuing building on the achievements so far. I would simply highlight the thematic topics under which these were discussed. We don't have time really enough to go into details of each one of them.

So there were roughly ten or eleven areas. First was trade, in which as you heard both Prime Ministers speak in their press remarks, they focused on the achievement of ECTA between the two countries but they also expressed a shared aspiration that the discussions on CECA, Comprehensive Economic Cooperation Agreement would progress rapidly. Two, investments. Three, technology. Four, tourism. Five, education. And as you all know during the visit of Honorable Prime Minister of Australia to India very recently during Holi, two of the Australian Universities opened up their first campus at the Gift city in Gujarat. Six, defense and security. Seven, the entire domain of renewable energy and in that the particular focus was on green hydrogen, both during the bilateral discussions as also during Prime Minister's individual meetings with the CEOs of the Australian companies yesterday. Eight, the entire segment of migration and mobility. Nine, the field of rare earths and critical minerals. Again there also the entire ecosystem of how the two countries, how the private sector, business and industry of the two countries can partner was touched upon, whether it's technology or it is skill mapping or it is of course investments and naturally trade. Ten, people to people cooperation. These were essentially ten…and of course the 11th, which was very prominently announced by the two Prime Ministers yesterday as also during their press remarks earlier today, which is the opening of the Australian Consulate General in the city of Bengaluru in India and the opening of the Indian Consulate General in the city of Brisbane in Australia. These were eleven odd bilateral specific topics on which the discussion time was spent by the two Prime Ministers. Besides the areas of bilateral importance, the two Prime Minister also spent some time talking about regional and global issues.

There I would highlight six broad categories where the discussions focused on, the first, Quad. Second relating to the larger maritime and the terrestrial space of Indo-Pacific. Three, the impact of Russia Ukraine ongoing conflict. Four, the PIC India Pacific, the engagement both of India and Australia with the countries of the Pacific. This was particularly contextualized in terms of Honorable Prime Minister of India's recent visit to Papua New Guinea. And the last one was on the potential cooperation between India and Australia in terms of benefiting the countries of the Global South. Sixth, I would say specific focus which was more on essentially global issue on the reform of the UN Security Council, where you heard some of the remarks which were made during the press conference. Besides, you would have all noticed the exceptional warmth that was very visible pretty much across all the engagements, including the public engagements that the Honorable Prime Minister has had over the last couple of days. You were all witness to the energy intensive and absolutely vibrant community event yesterday where both the Prime Ministers were present. I would be doing an injustice if I tried to describe that in words, I think the words would be superfluous in this context. So I would bypass that. You also saw for yourself the unveiling of the foundation stone for Little India Gateway as Honorable Prime Minister of India mentioned during his press remarks, that this would only strengthen the living bridge of the relationship between our two countries, which is the vibrant Indian community and the Diaspora here. Honorable Prime Minister of Australia also mentioned about naming of the Sailani Avenue in Perth in the memory of the First World War veteran from India, ceremonial welcome this morning at the Admiralty House. And of course the sheer chemistry and the friendship between the two Prime Ministers, which was there for all of us to see yesterday. Honorable Prime Minister of Australia compared it to Bruce Springsteen. I think I'll just let it be there in that sense. Just briefly to also capture that in terms of the ten areas of bilateral discussions that came up, we would suggest that…we would think that three of them really would be areas of intense focus in terms of our efforts in months and years ahead. One of course the green hydrogen, which is in the very nature of that particular domain is forward leaning. The mobility partnership, I think it sets a new benchmark in terms of not just people to people relationship, but how the entire…how the two economies actually look at each other in terms of benefiting from the complementarities and competencies of the skills, I would say, between the two economies. And third, of course, this entire space of defense and security and technology, which is a forever new, evolving dimension of the relationship. In the specific field of technology, I would say, and this figure very prominently in discussions, I would simply underline this as only just one of the segments, which is the cooperation in the space of fintech. And again, this is one of those unique areas where everybody in the two countries, everybody in the two societies is a net beneficiary. It is one of those things where one of fintech of India and one of complementaries in the Australian economy. One plus one makes three, not just two. That's the way nature of the fundamental catalyst nature of cooperation in the space of financial technologies. I think I would probably end here and if I have left out any of the things, we'll try and address them through the questions. Thank you.

Shri Arindam Bagchi, Official Spokesperson:Thank you very much sir. Before we open the floor for questions, the ground rules, please introduce yourself and the organization that you represent.

Ayushi:Sir Ayushi from ANI. Sir during the bilateral meeting between both the Prime Ministers where our Prime Minister raised the issue of concern regarding the attacks of Hindu temples in Australia, did the Australian side also told us about any arrests being made so far in terms of those responsible for such actions?

Shri Arindam Bagchi, Official Spokesperson:Another hand? Yeah. Sidhant.

Sidhant:Sidhant from WION sir. The Prime Minister said that he got assurances from Prime Minister Albanese. What kind of assurances the Australian government gave specifically on the attacks from the Hindu temples? And my second question is how much China was part of the conversation because both countries in some way have been dealing with a very aggressive China?

Shri Arindam Bagchi, Official Spokesperson: Manish.

Manish Chand: Manish Chand, India Writes Network. Sir, you said Global South was part of the conversation under rubric of multilateral regional issues. In what ways India and Australia are going to work to advance welfare and interest of the Global South? Number one. Number two. Sir, very briefly, you spoke about defense cooperation, defense and security. Have we reached a stage where we are looking at joint manufacturing or transfer of technology? What is the way ahead for defense relationship? Thank you.

Kirsty Needham: Hi. I'm Kirsty Needham from Reuters. I had two questions. You mentioned reform of the UN Security Council. What ideas were discussed between Australia and India on this matter? Also you referred to the Pacific Island countries. On the same day that the Prime Minister Modi visited Papua New Guinea, the United States signed a Defense Cooperation Agreement. What's India's views on this?

Shri Arindam Bagchi, Official Spokesperson:I think we'll take these round of questions sir.

Shri Vinay Kwatra, Foreign Secretary: Thank you. First to ANI's question with regard to attack on the temples and the other such activities that are disruptive to the relationship. As you heard Honorable Prime Minister say in his press remarks that the attack on the temples and the activities of the other separatist elements, these were discussed between the two Prime Minister earlier also, during Prime Minister Albanese's visit to India and today also. From the discussions last time till this time, the progress is clearly reflected in the fact that Honorable Prime Minister of India thanked Honorable Prime Minister of Australia for the action that the Government of Australia has taken, not just in making correct appreciation of the nature of such activities, but also against the elements which perpetrated such attacks. Besides, you would have clearly noticed when the Honorable Prime Minister of India said and which was clearly appreciated by the Australian side, that India Australia ties are very strong, very deep, very extensive and we would not allow these friendly ties to be disrupted by such elements. Prime Minister also thanked the Honorable Prime Minister of Australia for his assurance and this is where I come to that specific part which Sidhant asked, which is that assurance that Australia would continue to take strong actions against such elements that want to disrupt the strong and deep ties and India Australia partnership. Naturally, this is one of those areas where the relevant departments of the two countries will remain in touch with each other so that they can closely coordinate whenever the information on such a thing arises and needs to be exchanged with the other side so that timely action can be taken on that. With regard to China, Sidhant, to your specific point, as I mentioned to you that during the discussions between the two Prime Minister there were also areas of regional significance and regional developments, developments in the region which came up for discussion. Quad where they spoke about free, open, stable and prosperous Indo-Pacific and discussions in the Quad realm and the Indo-Pacific realm as to how India and Australia can work together to shape a positive agenda in Quad and Indo-Pacific was discussed. Naturally, the challenges to the peace and stability and prosperity in the region were also discussed and how India and Australia being strategic partners can work together not just to accentuate and amplify and harness the opportunities but also take active steps to mitigate the challenges that arise in the region.

Manish, in some ways, the question relating to Global South and how India and Australia are also working in the Indo-Pacific, and the recent visit of Honorable Prime Minister of India to Papua New Guinea for the FIPIC Summit, essentially is a triangulation and an intersection set of this and clearly you would have noticed that during Indian Prime Minister's visit to Papa New Guinea for the FIPIC the agenda…and I spent some time explaining that in great detail on day before yesterday evening when we held this presser…stretched a range of developmental cooperation activities which India proposes to do with countries of the Pacific whether they are in the field of capacity building, health security, renewable, maritime domain….again maritime domain, more in terms of the economic partnership in addressing the challenges in the maritime domain that the countries of the Pacific Island space. Naturally, this is an area where Australia has strong presence, has traditionally had strong presence. And naturally, our cooperation with Australia can be synergetic in a manner that is beneficial to the countries of the Pacific, which are, of course, countries of the Global South also.

On the UN Security Council reform, there was a very clear articulation during the discussion, that of a support…a strong support for the permanent membership of India to the UN Security Council and generally also the need for reform of the UN system, including Security Council, which obviously we all know doesn't reflect the contemporary realities of today's world. I've already spoken about the Pacific Island cooperation, which you had asked, and I mentioned clearly that our agenda during the FIPIC Summit…the third FIPIC Summit, and even the preceding two summits and building onto them, also chalking out some new areas…out and out development cooperation template. Our development cooperation template, which one, doesn't burden your economies with structural debt, development cooperation template that is driven by the needs of the Pacific countries and a cooperation template which is along the shared values of democracy, openness and transparency with which India is known to undertake all its development cooperation activities across the countries of the Global South.

Yeah, okay. There was the question from Manish on defense and security. If you look at the nature of India Australia defense and security cooperation, you would find it has pretty much all the elements that are there in the traditional part of defense strategic partnership. So at the political level, of course, under the leadership and the guidance of the two Prime Ministers, there is the two plus two defense and political security dialogue, which is led by the two Ministers. We have a very regular set of both bilateral and the plurilateral exercises, defense exercises…Malabar, of course, being one of them. And as you know, this year's Malabar is being hosted by Australia. Three, the defense exchanges between the uniform services. Four, we also do cooperation and exercises that focuses on interoperability of the two defense forces. Naturally, it helps us not only just better understand each other, but helps us bring together our capacities and share them in a manner that we are better aware of the challenges that are out there in this particular space. Co-production, co-design, co-research is something which has always been an ongoing area of engagement and discussions between the two countries. Of course, what specific elements it takes in terms of the products or even the services or the technologies which both countries would cooperate on, I think is something which we'll share with you once they've reached a certain stage of fruition.

Shri Arindam Bagchi, Official Spokesperson:Yeah. Anand.

Anand Narasimhan: Namaste to everybody on the dais. My name is Anand Narasimhan from CNN-News 18. I request your response reaction to three comments that were offered by Ms. Penny Wong soon after the bilateral statement, I had the opportunity to speak with her. First on the Comprehensive Economic Cooperation, or CECA, when I asked her what were the creases, one of the things she said, as an Australian, I'd like better market access and transparency. So your response on that. On the issue of extremism, which Prime Minister very clearly highlighted as Alagavwaada, she said, these are largely political and activities like the referendum don't even need a response. I don't want to dignify it with a response. That was her point. And lastly, on Foreign Minister Dr. Jaishankar, her counterpart, she said, I admire his strategic acumen and I've learned a lot from him. Your response sir.

Shri Arindam Bagchi, Official Spokesperson: If you don't mind, I don't think the objective of this press briefing is to respond to your interview that you did. Is there a specific query you had on a couple of them? I'll pass them on to Foreign Secretary.

Anand Narasimhan:..Sir, on Comprehensive Economic cooperation...

Stephen Dziedzic:Hello, sir, Stephen Dziedzic from ABC News. If I could, I'd like to press you a little bit further on the issue of Khalistan activities in Australia. You mentioned in your earlier answer that there was an assurance from our Prime Minister that Australia would continue to take strong action. Can you elaborate any further, sir, on what this strong action is precisely?

Shri Arindam Bagchi, Official Spokesperson:Shouldn't you be asking the Australian side? But anyway..

Stephen Dziedzic: I asked them repeatedly but your characterization of how the Prime Minister interpreted.

Meghna Dev:Sir, I'm Meghna Dev from DD News. Sir, the two leaders have met and has there been any deadline set during the meeting for CECA negotiations to conclude September or by the end of this year? Second question also, India Australia Green Hydrogen Task Force, who will be the part of the task force from the respective countries? Will private players be also robed in on that as well?

Shri Arindam Bagchi, Official Spokesperson: The task force? Okay, just the Terms of Reference are finalized. Okay, quickly then. Okay, just last couple of questions.

Jai Bharadwaj:I'm Jai Bharadwaj from the Australia Today. As today focus was on mobility and migration, it is an important issue for both countries. However, some Australian Universities have…they are holding admissions to certain state students of India. So is there a way this...

Shri Arindam Bagchi, Official Spokesperson: Is there a statement in that regard, or is just a general feeling?

Jai Bharadwaj: It's not a general feeling, we have done a detailed story on that. There are five Universities, three states have been withheld. Admissions are not being granted to the state of Gujarat, Punjab and Haryana. So your response, how this will be resolved or something. Second, on Khalistani issue…I asked last time also…is there understanding within Australian authorities or Government…the implication on Australia…security implication on Australia and its people as what happened in Canada?

Shri Arindam Bagchi, Official Spokesperson:Again, best ask them, but I think Foreign Secretary will give you some answer. Yeah, last question there please.

Andrew Tillett: Thank you sir. Andrew Tillett from the Australian Financial Review. Just in the leaders discussion on Russia Ukraine…was there any discussion around the influence that India may have with Russia to end the war and any discussion around India's ongoing purchases of Russian oil and things like that?

Shri Arindam Bagchi, Official Spokesperson: You mean today?

Andrew Tillett: Yesterday. Thank you.

Shri Arindam Bagchi, Official Spokesperson: I mean, in the discussions in the last couple of days?

Andrew Tillett:Yes.

Shri Arindam Bagchi, Official Spokesperson: Okay, yeah. Sir, I will hand over to you now.

Shri Vinay Kwatra, Foreign Secretary:Thank you. Let me start with the last question first, which is relating to the Russia Ukraine conflict. As I mentioned in my opening remarks also, the focus of discussion with regard to Russia Ukraine conflict was on the impact of that conflict on various economic dimensions and in particularly their impact on the developing countries. So the challenges, particularly relating to food security, the derivative inflationary pressures which emerged out of the food security challenges earlier on, the uncertainty relating to the fuel or the oil in that sense, there it was more about how the uncertainty itself burdens many of the developing countries in terms of planning, how the energy security of that particular country is to be structured, etcetera. So the focus of the discussions on Russia Ukraine conflict was more on their economic impact, in particular on the developing countries. One.

Two, with regard to the set of questions relating to the Khalistan issues, what it means, what it represents. Look, I would not like to get into specifics of what the relevant departments of the Government of India do. I will only repeat here the broad sentiment which was expressed during the open press remarks of the two leaders, which is that India and Australia enjoy deep, extensive, strong, robust, multifaceted ties as part of their strategic partnership. And we would not accept the disruption in this relationship by such elements which try to harm this relationship through their activities. And whatever the two countries have to do, whatever the two systems need to do to ensure that this relationship remains strong, robust, unimpacted by such activities and such players, would be done by the two governments.

In terms of Mr. Anand your question on CECA…political referendum, strategic acumen, I think the statement speaks for itself, so I would not second guess that part. But on the market access, transparency…look, it's not really correct for me and you would agree here….to frankly prejudge what the negotiators between the two countries do on these negotiations. All I understand is that the next couple of rounds of the CECA negotiations are planned for I think one in June, one in month of July. You would have noticed and perhaps appreciated the fact that ECTA was only launched very recently and within such a short time the discussions have progressed from not only full utilization of the benefits that are available to the business community under ECTA, but also to start talking about how these can be further built upon through Comprehensive Economic Cooperation Agreement. Market access, whether it is for goods or it is for services or it is in the movement of capital…are a subject matter of very detailed discussions between the professional negotiators. So I think it's not really specific for me to say anything on that. I would only request you to focus on the broad direction that is coming from the leadership which is…look, I've listed out to you ten areas of economic partnership….naturally arrangements which are structural in nature, which provide a framework in which the business and industry of the two countries can come together and partner more strongly, would obviously be very helpful in moving this cooperation further. As I said, the specifics of those discussions, negotiations I think are best left to the negotiators.

Well…those who asked about deadline I would only refer you to the fact that next two rounds are planned for June and July. Anything else?

Yeah, the mobility migration and the green hydrogen. Look, green hydrogen, whatever brief my understanding of that particular domain is…is an upcoming area. It's something which involves all segments, I would say whole of the Government approach. You have a policy making which of course has to happen, the Government. There is a very strong industrial involvement, simply because not just the generative phase of the green hydrogen, but also the user case of the green hydrogen has to be defined by multiple sectors of the economy and naturally the industry involvement is very useful. Clearly that's a space which requires substantial expertise, technical expertise, advice, guidance…because the standards in the field of green hydrogen, as we go along are evolving. It would naturally mean that the experts and people who specialize in this field come together and talk to each other much more. There is of course the entire field of hydrogen electrolyzer, their production, green hydrogen, their user case as I said. So given the extensive nature of the ecosystem in which the green hydrogen is moving, naturally its research, business, government policy, stakeholders of all kinds have to come in. And of course once the task force of the green hydrogen task move forward, all these things would begin to fall in place.

Migration mobility is, as I mentioned in my opening remarks, is a very crucial new segment of our partnership, which would actually take it to another set of stakeholders, which are the students, the skilled workforce. The greater connect between how the human resource strength of the two society actually complements each other and then in the process benefits the two economies. That has always been the vision of the Prime Minister of India. And it was really the signing of this partnership also clearly shows that not just the leadership of the two country thinks together, views this together, but also the rest of the stakeholders in the system also view it as a very forward leaning and something with a positive orientation between the two countries. These specifics of the mobility migrant partnership are already out available, so I think you can refer to that. Thank you.

Shri Arindam Bagchi, Official Spokesperson: I think that's not a subject matter of today's conversation so I just answered that one. Look, I not want to comment on general media reports on which Universities have in Australia are doing something. As Foreign Secretary said the larger objective of this is to drive a closer relationship and so I think we leave that specific query for the moment.

Shri Vinay Kwatra, Foreign Secretary:Thank you very much. Thanks for your presence here this afternoon. Thank you.

Shri Arindam Bagchi, Official Spokesperson:Thank you very much.