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Transcript of Special Briefing by Secretary (East) on Prime Minister's visit to Lao PDR (October 11, 2024)

India - Ministry of External Affairs

October 11, 2024

Shri Randhir Jaiswal, Official Spokesperson: Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen. I welcome you to this Special Briefing by Secretary (East), Shri Jaideep Mazumdar on the visit of Prime Minister to Laos for ASEAN-India Summit and thereafter the East Asia Summit. He also had bilateral engagement. Joining Secretary Sir on the dais is Ambassador of India to ASEAN, Shri Jayant Khobragade; also Ambassador of India to Lao PDR, Shri Prashant Agrawal and Joint Secretary in the Ministry of External Affairs who looks after ASEAN Affairs, Smt. Paramita Tripathi. With that, I invite Secretary Sir to give his remarks.

Shri Jaideep Mazumdar, Secretary (East): Thank you, Randhir, and a very good afternoon to all of you. As you know, Prime Minister arrived in Lao PDR yesterday afternoon. Since then, over yesterday and today, he has had very intense engagements, including both the ASEAN-India Summit, the East Asia Summit, and several bilateral meetings on the margins of both these events.

To give you a snapshot of the program, when he arrived at Vientiane Airport yesterday, he was received by His Excellency the Home Minister of Lao PDR, and he was given a ceremonial welcome at the airport. When he arrived at the hotel, he was given a rousing reception by members of the Indian community and Lao nationals. In fact, there were several events on his arrival which impressed the Prime Minister, and he recounted these both in his meetings with the Prime Minister of Lao PDR, and with His Excellency the President of Lao PDR when he met him a little while ago. And these were the fact that there was such a syncretic welcome that he got with representations of Assamese Bihu dance, as well as recitation of the Gayatri Mantra. And also, he attended a blessing ceremony of senior Buddhist monks from the Central Buddhist Fellowship Organization, led by the Most Venerable Mahaveth Masenai, the revered abbot of Si Saket Temple in Vientiane; and several dignitaries, including the Mayor of Vientiane, the Minister for Sports and Education, as well as the Governor of the Central Bank of Lao PDR were in attendance. And the most significant was, again, an exquisite display of an episode of the Ramayana that was performed. It is called Phra Lak Phra Lam in Lao PDR. It was performed by the prestigious Royal Theatre of Luang Prabang, and it depicted Ravana Vadh, which is appropriate two days ahead of Dussehra. Prime Minister also walked through an exhibition of photographs of the restoration work that the Archaeological Survey is doing at the Vat Phou Temple in Lao PDR, and this gives you a glimpse of the great common heritage that India and Lao PDR share.

The Prime Minister attended the 21st ASEAN-India Summit and the 19th East Asia Summit, as I said. These are especially significant this year because we marked the 10th year of Prime Minister's 'Act East' policy this year. As he commented during his interactions, this is the 11th time that he is attending these events and it shows India's great focus as well as our commitment to both ASEAN and the East Asia process. ASEAN leaders and the Prime Minister reviewed our relations, the comprehensive relations that we have with ASEAN. ASEAN leaders especially very positively appraised our cooperation in many areas of diverse collaboration as a result of India's 'Act East' policy and also they appraised very positively India's leadership role in digital public infrastructure and the fact that ASEAN countries can benefit significantly from this.

Prime Minister congratulated Lao PDR on a very successful stewardship of ASEAN and related mechanisms throughout the year and he announced a 10-point special plan to strengthen connectivity and resilience with ASEAN. These involve a wide variety of initiatives that India is taking with ASEAN. They include, for example, celebrating next year as the ASEAN-India Year of Tourism. The ASEAN leaders all universally welcomed this as a very positive development. It was also announced that India will contribute $5 million towards joint cooperative activities in this area. To mark this decade of 'Act East' policy, several people-to-people and people-centric initiatives were announced. We will have a Youth Summit. We will have a music festival of ASEAN bands with Indian bands. We will have also an Artist Camp. We will have a Hackathon, Startup Festival, the Delhi Dialogue next month. The ASEAN-India Network of Think Tanks will also meet next month. So these are a very wide variety of people-to-people activities that we will be undertaking as we go forward from here on.

Another important initiative is the ASEAN-India Women Scientists' Conclave, which we have decided to institutionalize, and we fund this from the ASEAN-India Science and Technology Development Fund. The number of scholarships from Nalanda University will be nearly doubled for ASEAN students, and we emphasized also that secure, resilient and reliable supply chains are an important aspect of our relations with ASEAN countries, and for that we will also expedite our discussions on the review of the ASEAN-India Free Trade in Goods Agreement by 2025.

We will also contribute $5 million towards disaster resilience, and the National Disaster Management Authority and the ASEAN Coordinating Center for Humanitarian Assistance have a working relationship and an MoU, and they will work together on this. In the field of health, we will institute a new Health Ministers' Track and also a Cooperative Framework for ASEAN countries to tap India's National Cancer-Grid 'Vishwam'. In digital and cyber resilience, we propose a regular mechanism for ASEAN-India Cyber Dialogue, and its first meeting is scheduled next week in Singapore, and the ASEAN-India Fund for the Digital Future has also been institutionalized and operationalized. We will also have a workshop on Green Hydrogen with ASEAN towards climate resilience. The Prime Minister invited ASEAN leaders to join the campaign to plant a tree for mother, 'Ek Ped Maa Ke Naam'.

The 21st ASEAN-India Summit adopted two declarations, two statements at the leader level. One was a Statement on the 'Act East' policy and its contribution to ASEAN-India relations, the Comprehensive Strategic Partnership that we have, and another on Advancing Digital Transformation in the region. As you know, Singapore has been our coordinator in ASEAN for the past three years and the Prime Minister appreciated Singapore's role in this and also welcomed the fact that Philippines will be our coordinator as we go forward for the next three years.

At the East Asia Summit today morning, Prime Minister conveyed India's support for ASEAN unity and centrality and ASEAN's importance as a central pillar of our own Indo-Pacific vision and of Quad cooperation, and that the East Asia Summit is an important pillar also of India's 'Act East' policy. The Prime Minister recalled the support that was received from the East Asia Summit states for revival of Nalanda University and briefed them that we have now operationalized this and the new campus of Nalanda University was inaugurated in June this year and he also took this opportunity to invite the East Asia Summit states for their Heads of Higher Education to participate in a conclave that will be held in Nalanda University.

Leaders exchanged views on regional and international matters that affect peace, stability and prosperity in the Indo-Pacific region and beyond, and Prime Minister underlined the severe impact of these conflicts on countries of the Global South; and also highlighted that path of dialogue and diplomacy based on a humanitarian approach is the only way forward, and that he reiterated that there was no solution that can be found on the battlefield.

Prime Minister also had several bilateral meetings, as I have said. Yesterday Prime Minister had the bilateral meeting with the newly appointed Prime Minister of Japan, Mr. Shigeru Ishiba and he congratulated Prime Minister Ishiba on assuming his new role and wished him success in leading Japan to greater heights. Both leaders emphasized the importance of the bilateral relationship.

Prime Minister also had a meeting with the Prime Minister of New Zealand, Prime Minister Christopher Luxon on the sidelines and this was the first meeting between the two leaders, so Prime Minister used this opportunity to congratulate him and the two Prime Ministers discussed ways to strengthen bilateral cooperation in a number of areas including agri-tech, dairy-tech, in defence and security, in education, climate change, sports cooperation, tourism, space and people-to-people ties.

With the Prime Minister of Lao PDR, Prime Minister Modi had a meeting today, early afternoon. These talks covered the entire gamut of our bilateral relations. They held productive discussions on how to strengthen our civilizational and contemporary ties. Prime Minister congratulated Prime Minister Sonexay Siphandone on the very successful conduct of the ASEAN and related summits.

Six MOUs were signed, one on defence cooperation, another on customs facilitation, one on audio-visual cooperation and three Memoranda of Understanding on quick impact projects which were especially significant because they contribute towards the conservation of our common heritage. One is on the puppet theatre in Lao PDR that is based on the Ramayana, then one of them is on the restoration work in one of the monasteries and temples here in Lao PDR which has murals from the Ramayana, and a third on Lao Ramayana theater; and these initiatives were greatly appreciated by the Lao leadership.

Prime Minister also called on President Sisoulith a little while ago, about half an hour ago, and the President has been to India in the previous role as Prime Minister during the 2018 ASEAN-India Commemorative Summit, so he recounted his very positive impressions at that time and having met Prime Minister Modi at that time and Prime Minister invited him to visit India again as well.

Prime Minister also had a bilateral meeting with the new Prime Minister of Thailand, Her Excellency Ms. Paetongtarn Shinawatra and Prime Minister congratulated her on assuming this role and this was their first meeting and she extended her greetings to Prime Minister on his historic third term in office. They discussed bilateral relations as well as the very positive cooperation that we have under the BIMSTEC arrangement.

Prime Minister also had brief interactions with other world leaders such as President Marcos of the Philippines, the President of the European Council, Prime Minister of Malaysia and the Prime Minister of Australia. Overall, the visit was a very, very significant one, both from a multilateral perspective as well as the bilateral meetings that Prime Minister was able to engage in; and I have a little time for a few questions, if there are any.

Meghna: Sir, East Asia Summit me Pradhan Mantri Narendra Modi ne apne vaktavya me vistaarvaad ki baat ki aur vikasvaad ki baat ki hai. Is par aap kya kahenge? Ye jo in dono sabdo par jor diya hai uske upar aap bata sakte hai kya importance hai in dono sabdo ka?

[Question in Hindi: Approximate translation] Sir, in the East Asia Summit, Prime Minister Narendra Modi spoke about expansionism and development in his statement. What would you like to say about that? Can you explain the importance of these two words, considering the emphasis he placed on them?

Sahil: Sir, I'm Sahil from ANI. This visit has been equally meaningful for Laos and India ties. There has been substantial outcome and very good feel on the India-Laos civilizational ties. Could you elaborate on these aspects?

Speaker: Hi, I'm with Bloomberg News. We have a few questions. The first one is that we're wondering for the EAS, did the Leaders sign a Leaders' Statement or a Statement from all the countries? If it's a Leaders' Statement, is there a reason for that? And the second question is on Myanmar. We wondered if you could speak about India's plans in Myanmar and in what ways India tells the Junta to de-escalate violence. Also, would India consider backing another group and how would you characterize China's role in Myanmar and in what ways is China's relationship with various stakeholders shaping the conflict? Thank you very much.

Shri Jaideep Mazumdar, Secretary (East): As far as the first question is concerned, I think Prime Minister emphasized that India, as a development partner of ASEAN, is interested in promoting peace, stability and prosperity in the region. And as I said, he emphasized that dialogue and diplomacy are the ways, not coercion and war and conflict, and that war is no solution to today's problems. So that was the context in which he used those expressions.

India-Laos relations, yes, we have a very, very positive developmental partnership with Lao PDR. We engage in capacity building and, as you know, humanitarian assistance during calamities and typhoons and landslides. We have helped in the past. We also have defence cooperation in terms of training that we have had in the past and we look forward to continuing that as well. And so these are all different ways in which we engage with Lao PDR and the number of students from Lao PDR are there studying, for example, in Nalanda University and elsewhere. And we are opening up our premier institutions in India for scholarships for students from ASEAN. One new area we have opened up is the field of agriculture. So that is another area that students from Lao PDR can participate in. And overall, the cultural and heritage links that we have with Lao PDR are very significant, which contributes a great deal towards our people-to-people connect that we have.

I believe there was only a Chair Statement at the East Asia Summit. There was no Leaders' Statement. There were some differences about some of the formulations that were discussed. Our Ambassador to ASEAN was a participant in those. Ultimately, I believe those differences were irreconcilable and therefore we did not have a Leaders' Statement.

About Myanmar, many leaders emphasized the importance of the ASEAN's five-point consensus. Prime Minister also emphasized that Myanmar should be engaged, Myanmar should not be isolated. And that it is important to restore democracy in Myanmar, and that all countries should work together to achieve this. That is all I have.

Shri Randhir Jaiswal, Official Spokesperson: Thank you, sir. With that, we come to the closure of this Session. Thank you very much for your presence.