05/07/2005

OFFICIAL SPOKESPERSON (SHRI NAVTEJ SARNA): Good evening ladies and gentlemen. It gives me great pleasure to welcome you to this briefing by the Foreign Secretary primarily on Prime Ministers visit tomorrow to Gleneagles but also, since we have the Foreign Secretary here for a little while, maybe some other issues could also be addressed.

FOREIGN SECRETARY (SHRI SHYAM SARAN): Thank you and good afternoon to all of you. I thought it might be useful for me to just give you a sense of what would be happening at Gleneagles on the 7th when Prime Minister would be going along with some other leaders from developing countries as special invitees to the G-8 Summit.

The theme of this summit is global economy, climate change and sustainable development. These would be the main issues that would be taken up during the Summit. There are five developing countries which have been invited to participate in the Summit. These include, apart from India, Brazil, Mexico from Latin America, China and South Africa. The British are the coordinators, as you know, for this summit. In pursuit of the themes that I have mentioned to you, they have also been working together both with these five developing countries as well as their G-8 partners on some kind of an action plan on issues relating to climate change as well as energy issues.

We have also been working together with our developing country colleagues, as also with the British, to put forward what would be a developing country viewpoint at this summit. So, when Prime Minister arrives in Gleneagles there will be a meeting of the five leaders from the developing countries. The idea is that we should be in a position to put forward in a coordinated manner the views that we have concerning the development of the global economy, climate change, sustainable development.

On global economy, essentially the message that we would like to give is that there should be a recognition of the importance of global growth to the interest of the developing countries that just at the time when there is a process of globalisation taking place, there is a process of liberalization taking place, developed countries should avoid any new kind of protectionist measures in the shape of non-tariff barriers, in the shape of concerns being expressed for example about outsourcing, and that the markets of developed countries remain open to developing countries.

There is a need to make certain that the forthcoming meeting, the WTO meeting in Hong Kong in December, is a success. There are certain critical issues relating for example to agricultural subsidies which need to be sorted out. We would like there to be a development-oriented outcome to this meeting.

With regard to the issues of energy and environment, the fundamental approach that we have is that developing countries need increasingly larger supplies of energy for their development, that development is the priority. We are certainly concerned about sustained development. We are concerned about the environment but it should be understood that the main responsibility with regard to, for example dealing with the greenhouse gases is that of the developed countries. It is they who are responsible for the overwhelmingly large proportions of such emissions. Even in the next decade or more this situation will not really change very much. If the developing countries have to adopt new, clean technologies, then it is essential that technology transfer should be made easier to the developing countries.

Now just as in the case of, for example dealing with the global challenge such as HIV/AIDS a certain approach has been taken that certain technologies should be put in the public domain so that the IPR issue is taken care of. Similarly, we believe that if there are certain technologies which are significant in terms of cleaner use of energy, then it is perhaps worthwhile that some of these technologies should be put in the public domain, the IPR issue should be relaxed, so that developing countries have easy access to such technologies because without this it is difficult to see how such technologies can really be diffused among the developing countries.

So, one is the issue of technology, the other issue is that of affordability that is even though there are technologies which are available, unless these are made available to developing countries at affordable rates it is again difficult to see how these can be diffused. The point we have made is that the kind of financial flows which are required for the adoption of these technologies must be additional to existing financial flows, that is, existing ODA flows. So, it should not become a charge on the already limited, existing flows of financial funds to developing countries but it should be an additionality. So, this is another very important aspect of the approach that has been taken by the developing countries.

The third point that we have made is that there needs to be collaboration in research and development effort in order to come up with new, clean technologies. Here the five developing countries who are going to be represented at Gleneagles, even though they are developing countries, they are countries which also have rather significant research capabilities. They have very sound network of research institutions. So, there is also a suggestion that, therefore, to be some kind of a partnership amongst the developing countries and the developed countries so that new technologies can be developed which can be then adopted both by developing countries and developed countries. So, this is essentially the approach that is going to emerge from the deliberations of the developing country leaders in Gleneagles.

Of course, there will be some kind of an action plan which may emerge from the G-8 themselves. Whether that actually happens remains to be seen because you might have seen that there is still some controversy about the issue of climate change amongst the G-8 countries themselves. So, we will have to wait and see what kind of an action plan emerges from the G-8. But our attitude or our response to any such action plan will again be based on what I have mentioned that the primary responsibility in this regard is that of the developed countries. As you know, in the existing international instruments - is, the Kyoto Protocol or the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change the principle that is adopted is that of a common and differentiated responsibility. That is, there is a common challenge to all of us but there is a differentiated responsibility in terms of dealing with this challenge. That principle is fundamental and that principle must be ensured in any kind of participation which is sought from developing countries. Also in terms of any action plan, the other principles that I mentioned to you, that is, unless there is a willingness to tackle the IPR issue, the technology transfer issue; unless there is a willingness to tackle the financial issue, affordability issue; and whether or not there is also a willingness to engage with the developing countries in any kind of useful R&D effort for the future, I think much of our response to whatever emerges from the Gleneagles G-8 Summit will be determined on the basis of these criteria.

I think in addition to the opportunity which the Summit would give us to engage with our G-8 partners, there will also be some opportunity for some bilateral meetings. These are being arranged. Of course, since the time is short, it may not be possible to arrange meetings with all the different leaders. But certainly, a bilateral meeting with the host, Prime Minister Tony Blair, has been already tied up. We are also looking at possible meetings with some of the other G-8 leaders. Of course, I also mentioned to you that there will be an opportunity for the leaders of the five developing countries to be meeting together in advance of their meeting with the G-8 leaders.

I will stop here. On the Gleneagles Summit if you have any questions or clarifications you want, I will try my best to answer.

QUESTION: In which way the two subjects of climate change and Africa concern India specifically?
FOREIGN SECRETARY: Africa is a different segment. The meeting with some of the African Heads of States will be taking place on the 8th as I understand. That would be focused essentially on the recommendations which are contained in a Commission which was set up on Africa by the British and there are several recommendations which have come up some of which you have seen already reported, for example, writing off the debt of the most highly indebted African countries. But there are also recommendations with regard to economic development of Africa. So, we are not directly concerned with that segment. We are concerned with the segment, as I said, relating to the global economy, climate change and sustainable development.

Here, the Indian approach is, of course, it is energy security which is important to a developing country like India. We have often made the point that if you have countries like India and China developing at a rate of seven to eight per cent per annum for a number of years in the future, obviously energy will be a constraint. Therefore, we would be looking at those sources of energy. In India, for example, we have taken the view that this will inevitably lead India to look increasingly at nuclear energy as an important energy source. We already have a very major for the development of our hydropower resources. We are engaged also in research and development effort for renewable sources of energy. Not only domestically but also internationally, we are involved in a number of research efforts for example for the development of a hydrogen fuel economy. We have shown interest in participating in the ITER, which is the International Thermo-Nuclear Energy Project which is an initiative of the European Union but there are a number of partner countries. We certainly have an intention to also participate in that project. So, there are a number of things we are interested in. Naturally, I think in the discussions which will be held in Gleneagles, all the issues of energy and sustainable development, I think there will be an opportunity for us to put forward your viewpoints.

QUESTION: On the issue of Asian brown haze, do you think that India and China are going to be held responsible?
FOREIGN SECRETARY: We have no such indication.

QUESTION: You talked about nuclear energy. Has India put forward any specific proposal on nuclear energy production?
FOREIGN SECRETARY: We have stated on a number of occasions that precisely because of the very large demands for energy which are inevitable which are going to be engaged in a sustained growth rate of about seven to eight per cent per annum for the next ten years to 20 years and with the kind of global oil prices that you are seeing today, we may even be entering into an era of higher oil prices, so for us nuclear energy is certainly an important alternative. And it also happens to be a area in which we have developed over the years considerable amount of expertise. We have a very good infrastructure. We have a mastery over the entire nuclear fuel cycle. We have a highly qualified technical and scientific manpower in the atomic energy sector. Therefore, it stands to reason that we should be looking at developing this particular sector in a much more ambitious manner. The point that we would make is that in any case we would develop this particular sector, it would be very helpful of we had a more supportive international environment. It would be helpful if we had an international environment which fostered cooperation in the further development of our nuclear power industry. This is the viewpoint which, I am sure, will be expressed whenever appropriate.

QUESTION: You have emphasized that IPR should be relaxed in the field of nuclear energy. What sort of relaxations?
FOREIGN SECRETARY: I gave you the example of the HIV/AIDS challenge. There, as you know, we have had a kind of an exemption for developing countries from the application of the IPR issue, patent issue, with regard to a range of drugs which are used for treatment of HIV/AIDS. So, if we can do this for what is recognized as a major global challenge in the sector of public health, if we regard climate change, if we regard environment as also similarly an urgent global challenge, then perhaps we need to look at the ways in which we can meet this challenge by a relaxation issue with regard to clean development technologies.

QUESTION: What type of an arrangement is this? You are going to G-8. Is it a client-master relationship, of is it a permanent relationship that will be going on in every G-8 Summit?
FOREIGN SECRETARY: I do not think that there is a patron-client relationship nor are we looking at this as something which is permanent. The last time India was invited was to Evian in 2003. So, it is not that every year there is this opportunity. We certainly do not look upon our meeting as that of, as you mentioned, two different kinds of countries. In fact, there is very much a sense that these five developing countries are very major actors, they are major players and for dealing with any kind of global challenge, unless these countries are on board, unless these countries are also participants in that collective deliberation, in that collective decision-making, it would be very difficult to succeed in facing this global challenge. To that extent that issues relating to the global economy, very high energy prices, the issues relating to, as I mentioned, the climate change, how do we bring about sustainable development, these are all issues which require the active participation of major developing countries. I think it is in this spirit that these countries have been invited.

QUESTION: On ITER project, are there any indications that decision has been taken by France and by the end of the year I think things would start moving. Is there any indication that there is some opening for India because we have our own programme?
FOREIGN SECRETARY: I was in Brussels recently. In fact one of the items which was considered during the first meeting of the India-EU Energy Panel was precisely civil nuclear energy cooperation and specifically Indias participation in ITER. The European Union which is the main initiator of this project has welcomed Indias full participation in this project. Currently, of course, since there are six other major partners - I think these partners are the US, the UK, France, China, South Korea and Japan we have to also consult these other partner countries in terms of our desire to join as a full partner. So, this exercise is currently underway, as you have mentioned, the citing issue has been sorted out and also the selection of the main contractor for the project likely to be sorted out very soon.

QUESTION: In favour of Japan?
FOREIGN SECRETARY: No, no, this is for the contractor for carrying out the main project. So, we are currently engaged in precisely that exercise of trying to ensure our membership of the project.

QUESTION: India and China both will be big consumers of energy in the future. That way, they would also be becoming polluters in the world. The American condition had been that if India and China are willing to participate and agree to certain reduction norms in the second phase of Kyoto Protocol, then the United States can also think of joining Kyoto Protocol. Can there be a sort of a via media in this meeting when India and China put forward this proposal that in the second phase of Kyoto Protocol they would agree to reductions and the United States saying that in this condition we are willing to join the Kyoto Protocol. Is there any likelihood of that?
FOREIGN SECRETARY: Again I would draw your attention to what I said in my opening remarks that the fundamental principles for India, not only for India but for other developing countries including China, is the principle of common and differentiated responsibility. Under that principle, it had been recognized not only by India but by the international community as a whole that the main responsibility with regard to the greenhouse gases is really with the developed countries. That is because, not only today but if you make even a projection for the next decade or so or even more, the main responsibility for these emissions is really going to be from the developed nations. If you look at our emissions in per capita terms, then perhaps we will never reach the point that is currently the level of the developed countries.

` So, does this mean, therefore, that we are deliberately going to go in for development strategies which mean more environmental pollution? Certainly not. In fact our approach has been that irrespective of whether or not there is a commitment from us in this regard, because of our own interest we will adopted, as far as possible, clean development strategy. This is the reason why India has been spending such a large amount of resources on a very major R&D effort for renewable sources of energy. This is why we have a very major programme, as I mentioned, in terms of development of our nuclear energy. This is the reason why we have a very ambitious programme of our hydro power. We are very consciously trying to change the energy mix in favour of cleaner sources of energy. So, we are very conscious of our responsibility but I think it is not appropriate for those who are responsible for the major part of the environmental challenge that we are facing to not really take on the responsibility that they are supposed to be in terms of reducing their contribution to environmental pollution and expect that there should be commitments taken by developing countries. That is what we object to. So, I do not think that there should be any sense that India and China are deliberately adopting pollution producing strategies. I cannot speak for China, but I can certainly speak for India that that is not our development strategy.

QUESTION: You must have seen the stories coming out in the media on the African Union Summit. Essentially the stories that I have seen suggest that they have called for at least two permanent seats for Africa and five non-permanent seats. How do you look at this development vis--vis the G-4 efforts? Can you generally give us an update on what is happening with the G-4 and the possibility of when you are likely to move this resolution?
FOREIGN SECRETARY: The situation is sort of changing and evolving very rapidly. So, we have to keep it under constant review and see what is the best way of moving forward. As we have had occasion to point out that there is a critical role in this whole exercise to be played by the African countries because the African countries have 53 or 54 members of the United Nations. What is encouraging is the initial reports that we have that the African Union endorses the principle of there being an expansion both in the permanent and in the non-permanent category, and that the numbers that we have in mind for at least the permanent membership that is six, and the way in which they are to be distributed amongst different regions including Africa, that has been endorsed.

There may be some difference of with regard to the numbers in the non-permanent category. Of course, the African Union also seems to be suggesting a much clearer commitment in terms of the veto power for permanent members. Now, we will have to wait and see what precisely is the decision taken by the Summit itself. But I think on the basis of what has emerged so far, there is a basis for us to talk to them and see how we can take the framework resolution forward. So, when should the framework resolution be tabled, when should it be voted upon, I think we will have to await the decision of the Summit itself. We will obviously have to engage in further consultations with the African Union, and not just with the African Union representatives but also with other members of the United Nations, those who have co-sponsored the framework resolution, those who have promised support for the framework resolution, if there are any modifications which may be required, if there are any changes which are required, naturally we will have to discuss these with them. So, this is, I would suggest, a work in progress. Let us see how it evolves. But we remain optimistic.

Thank you.