Transcript of Special Briefing by Secretary (East) on the Visit of President to Fiji, New Zealand and Timor-Leste (August 02, 2024)

Shri Randhir Jaiswal, Official Spokesperson:Good afternoon ladies and gentlemen. I would like to welcome you to this Special Briefing by Secretary (East), Shri Jaideep Mazumdar on the upcoming State visits of Honorable Rashtrapati Ji to Fiji, New Zealand and Timor-Leste, which will happen during 5th to 10th of August. We also have the pleasure of having with us on the dais, Press Secretary to President, Shri Ajay Singh; Joint Secretary looking after Oceania region, Smt. Paramita Tripathi as also Joint Secretary looking after South countries in that region, Shri Ashish Sinha. With that, I give the floor to Secretary Sir.

Shri Jaideep Mazumdar, Secretary (East):Thank you Randhir and a very good afternoon to all of you, friends from the media. Thank you for coming to this Special Briefing on the upcoming visit of Honorable Rashtrapati Ji to the three countries, the three State visits that Randhir has just told you about.

So, let me just start with a brief overview of the context of the visits. So, Rashtrapati Ji will be first going to Fiji and then to New Zealand and then to Timor-Leste. With both Fiji and Timor-Leste, this would be the first ever visit by the President of India, therefore it has a special significance. Ever since Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi enunciated his 'Act East' policy, in the region, Southeast Asia and the Pacific has been a very special focus for us. So all these three countries fall within our 'Act East' policy.

With New Zealand also, we have a very old and strong partnership that we carry forward in our relations with the Pacific island countries. Timor-Leste itself has been accepted as a member of ASEAN. It will become the eleventh member of ASEAN after it has completed its accession processes. And with Fiji, of course, as you all know, we have a very old and strong relationship. Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi launched the FIPIC, the Forum for India and Pacific Islands countries in 2014 from Fiji. Therefore, it is a strong pillar of our relationship with the Pacific Islands. So this gives you an overall context of the importance of these three visits.

So firstly, Honorable Rashtrapati ji will visit Fiji, our special partner in the Pacific, at the invitation of the President of Fiji, His Excellency Ratu Wiliame Katonivere. Rashtrapati ji will be there between 5th to 7th of August. We have completed 75 years of our diplomatic presence in Fiji when we started with what we called then, the Commission for India, established in 1948, much before Fiji gained independence in 1970.

During this visit, Rashtrapati ji will hold bilateral meetings with both President Katonivere and Prime Minister of Fiji, His Excellency Mr. Sitiveni Rabuka in Suva. In addition, Rashtrapati ji will also address the Fijian Parliament and interact with Members of Parliament, among whom many are of Indian origin, as you know. We have very strong people-to-people ties with Fiji. The first Indians who arrived there were around 1857 as indentured laborers or Girmitiyas, as they are called. Today, more than a third of the population in Fiji is of Indian ancestry and they have preserved their languages, customs and traditions from India while adding local flavor. An important aspect, therefore, of the State visit will be the community interaction that Rashtrapati ji will have in Suva.

The visit confirms and reaffirms the strong commitment of India and Fiji to further strengthen our bilateral relations for progress and prosperity of the peoples of our two countries. India has been a strong development partner for Fiji, having undertaken numerous projects, as also offered lines of credit. We will be also setting up a 100-bed tertiary hospital in Suva and that is something that was announced by our Prime Minister, a few years ago and we hope to implement that very soon. So that would be also an important subject of our discussion there.

Moving on to the second leg of the visit, Rashtrapati ji will pay a State visit to New Zealand on 8th and 9th of August at the invitation of the Governor-General, Her Excellency the Rt. Honorable Dame Cindy Kiro. This will be a Presidential visit to New Zealand after eight years. Besides bilateral meetings with the Governor-General, Her Excellency Dame Cindy Kiro, Rashtrapati ji will also have meetings, call ons her by the Prime Minister, Mr. Christopher Luxon and Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister, Mr. Winston Peters, who was here in March this year. They will make courtesy calls on her and later on that evening, the Governor-General will be hosting a banquet in honor of Honorable Rashtrapati ji.

As you know, the Government of New Zealand has put India as a special focus country for their bilateral relations. New Zealand recognizes India as a key partner in defence and security and in terms of overall bilateral trade, investment, people-to-people contact, etc. Therefore, this visit will itself be highly significant. Education plays a big part in our bilateral relations. We are the country with the second largest number of students in New Zealand, about 8,000 Indian students study there, and Rashtrapati ji will therefore be addressing an International Education Conference in Wellington, where India is the Guest of Honor. This underscores the significance of the educational relationship where New Zealand is looking to work with India and collaborate with our education system and our educational institutions apart from the students that we send there.

The following day, Rashtrapati ji will have an interaction with the Indian diaspora and Friends of India at a community reception in Auckland. As you know, the Indian diaspora there is about 300,000 strong, out of a total population of 5 million. They are very well integrated into New Zealand society and are really a living bridge between the two countries. These warm and friendly ties with New Zealand have seen an uptick in recent years and the visit is expected to give further impetus to the growing relations in a large number of areas.

From New Zealand, Rashtrapati ji will travel to Timor-Leste at the invitation of the President of Timor-Leste, José Ramos-Horta and on 10th of August will be the main day of engagement. This will, as I have said before, be the first Head of State level visit from India to Timor-Leste. During the visit, apart from the bilateral meeting with the President, there will be also a meeting with Prime Minister, His Excellency Mr. Xanana Gusmão who will call on Rashtrapati ji and there will be also a community reception with the Indians in Timor-Leste and Friends of India. We have several areas of bilateral cooperation which we would like to follow up with the Government of Timor-Leste in various areas such as IT, digitalization, healthcare, agriculture and capacity building.

As you know, Rashtrapati ji's visit is seven months after the President of Timor-Leste himself, President Horta visited India and attended the Vibrant Gujarat Summit in January this year when he met Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi on the sidelines of that event.

We have announced the opening of our Mission in Timor-Leste. Prime Minister had announced this in September last year and we are well on the way to setting up our Embassy and we will be setting it up very soon. Timor-Leste has also in the meantime announced its intention to open an Embassy in New Delhi which we have welcomed warmly and so this will be the Delhi-Dili connect which will only get stronger after the two Embassies are opened. Besides that, Timor-Leste is a young and vibrant democracy and we have had many many years of warm and good cordial relationship with that country and therefore the visit is a very timely one and one of great significance for Timor-Leste and India's relationship.

I will now stop here and if you have any questions, I will take them.

Shri Randhir Jaiswal, Official Spokesperson:So before we open the floor, please keep your questions focused on the three State visits.

Sidhant: Sir, in terms of India's Indo-Pacific strategy, how important these visits are? And my second question is you talked about opening up of an Indian Embassy in Dili which was announced by the Prime Minister. Any timeline we are looking at, any month we are looking at? And my third and my last question is the President's address to the Fijian Parliament, will it be in Hindi?

Shri Jaideep Mazumdar, Secretary (East):Thank you. That question, I hope I was adequately able to answer the importance of these three visits for our 'Act East' policy. It is because we have both a very strong and deep and historical connect with these three countries and because we have so many things that we think we can do with them for the future, in every area whether it is in area of development, in the area of bilateral cooperation in diverse areas or in defence and security. That is the significance of the visit.

About whether the President will speak in Hindi or in English or in what language, wait and see. I invite you to be surprised. What was the other question?

Sidhant:Sir, opening up of the Indian Embassy, any timeline?

Shri Jaideep Mazumdar, Secretary (East):Yes, so we have already identified a team which will be there in Dili shortly to open the Embassy. We are in the process of appointing an Ambassador as well and similarly on the side of Timor-Leste, we are waiting for their team to arrive and for them to set up their Embassy. And it should be done within the next couple of months, at least from our side.

Huma:Sir, I am Huma Siddiqui from the Financial Express. You mentioned that defence and security with reference to New Zealand. What exactly are we going to talk about in the defence and security with New Zealand and you also mentioned the President is going to be addressing the Education Conference. What is this Conference about?

Shri Jaideep Mazumdar, Secretary (East):So, on the first part, I have mentioned defence and security as an important aspect of our conversation with New Zealand in the region, in the Indo-Pacific region. And this was also discussed when Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister of New Zealand visited India in March, and it has been expressed that this is an area that New Zealand would also like to engage India with in the Asia-Pacific and therefore we will take up that conversation.

As I mentioned, education being an important area in which many Indian students study in New Zealand. New Zealand's educational institutions are also interested to tie up with Indian institutions, both in terms of setting up institutions as well as in collaborating in, say, joint degrees and things like that. We already have one instance of that, Deakin University, but there will be conversations about how that can be expanded significantly. And what are the models that are available in terms of our New Education Policy of the Government of India?

Siddhant:Hi, Sir. My question is to Secretary (East). Sir, I'm Siddhant from CNN News18. Sir, we have been seeing that since Prime Minister Modi coming to power for the third time, there is an immense focus on India's 'Act East' policy. There have been many high-level visits to, even the Vietnamese Prime Minister who was here, then NSA Doval was there for BIMSTEC. A lot of focus on Eastern friends and partners. Now you are here to announce Rashtrapati ji's visit to three countries. Sir, I would like to understand from your…perhaps if you can share some perspective on the connectivity domain, how important the Eastern partners and allies are as far as the connectivity domain is concerned, and what progress we have made so far. Thank you.

Shri Jaideep Mazumdar, Secretary (East):This is a subject that we could go on quite extensively about. Unfortunately, today's Press Conference is about Rashtrapati ji's visit. So apart from the fact that we consider connectivity in a very holistic way, it is not only physical connectivity in terms of transport and communication, but also digital connectivity, people-to-people connectivity, civilizational and spiritual connectivity. So these are all different aspects that bind this region to India. And we are working on all fronts on this. So apart from that, I will not want to digress from the subject of the Rashtrapati ji's visit. Thank you.

Siddhant:Sir, my question is to Ajay Sir. Ajay Sir, if you can share the number of visits that Rashtrapati ji has taken abroad so far, Rashtrapati Murmu, if you can have the number?

Shri Randhir Jaiswal, Official Spokesperson:We can update you on that. We'll come back to you on that, Siddhant. So with that, we come to a close of this session. Thank you very much for your presence. Thank you Sir for taking your time to speak to our media friends.