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ANAND SHARMA: Good evening. Minister Simon Crean, myself, and senior officials from both the government of Australiaand India, the two delegations have had extensive discussions on all matters of mutual interest. This Ministerial Commission, which has met after two years has reviewed the status of the bilateral engagement which we both consider to be important given the fact that the two countries are engaged in a strategic relationship.

There has been a significant increase, both in trade and investment, and in trade both in merchandise as well as in services. There is a great potential of elevating this partnership to a higher level, particularly diversifying to those sectors which have been identified, where we have complementarities, comparative strengths, and also competitive strengths. And these sectors also include minerals, energy, environment, information and communication technology, science and technology, biotechnology, education and training, tourism, financial and other services agriculture and infrastructure.

We have underscored the importance of working together particularly in taking forward the projects which will be undertaken, research projects, under the strategic research fund, which was set up during the visit of the Australian Prime Minister.

Both the sides have also agreed to launch a CEO’s forum, we have a JBC at present, but a CEO’s forum, which will be co-chaired by one leader from both sides, captains of industry, representing the sectors in which Australia and India are engaged. In today’s times, Australiaand Indiaare bound to play a significant role in the larger economic partnership of the Asia Pacific region.

Also, we are engaged in multilateral forums, not only consulting with each other but taking joint initiatives to take the WTO negotiations to a successful completion. We have had the opportunity to talk about the multilateral negotiations, and also as I mentioned the other bilateral issues, which earlier had been discussed in greater detail by the senior officials of both the sides who presented their report of their deliberations to both me and Minister Simon Crean.

SIMON CREAN: Thank you Minister Anand, and again it is a pleasure to be back here in Delhi and to be participating in this Joint Ministerial Commission. We have had a busy day of engagement associated with the bilateral relationship, including engagement with the business community through the Joint Business Council. There is a strong delegation from Australia here and they have had very constructive meetings today with their Indian counterparts, and the relationship through the Australia-India Business Council, and the India-Australia business council is a very productive one indeed.

We have talked, as Anand has said, of the importance of building on that business-to-business engagement and strengthening of it through the establishment of the CEO’s forum, this was endorsed by our respective Prime Minister’s. We look forward to hosting the first of these meetings when the formalities and the composition of the CEO’s forum is finalised. We had very important discussions about the way forward for Doha, both of us share a commitment and a genuine optimism that it can be done, frustration that it has not been done, but optimism that it can be done, and that political engagement holds the key to making further progress and both of us will be attending the OECD meeting where the opportunity for trade ministerial engagement to occur will be available to us later this month.

We also share very strong common commitment in the region, to twin tracking both the CEPEA and the East Asia summit concept, so the ability to use the bilateral exchange to talk about shared values, shared commitments in terms of the regional and the multilateral architecture is terribly important.

As for the feasibility study, I am delighted that we are able to release it today, we commend it to those of you who share with us the interest about how we can strengthen the economic relationship between Australiaand India, We have had important engagement with the Asian region, moved away from just reliance on the traditional markets. India has been an important gap in terms of the strength of that engagement, we want to fill that gap.

This feasibility study demonstrates how important a successfully concluded FTA is to both economies; it underpins the fact that our developed relationship is not a zero-sum game. There in fact is a win-win potential out of this for both countries, depending upon the extent of ambition and commitment that both of us are prepared to embrace. One of the recommendations of course, from this feasibility study is that negotiations of a comprehensive bilateral free trade agreement should be undertaken.

That now remains an important decision for both of our governments but in us releasing this we also share and endorse the feasibility study’s recommendation on that point. Clearly it has to go through our respective processes, but we will. Both of us are committed to expediting within those processes, the way forward.

Anand, it has been a pleasure again to engage with you, we will be talking many times in the future, but I think this is a major milestone in terms of demonstrating the potential for a strengthened relationship. Clearly it is pointing to the fact that there are real gains to be had; the challenge for us is to realize those gains. That will only happen if we show the political will, we engage the negotiations and that both of us want to get on to once we are given the signal to go.

ANAND SHARMA: Well thank you, these are opening remarks by Minister Simon Crean, I have earlier spoken. If there are any questions, you may please ask, identify yourself and make it clear for whom this question is.

JOURNALIST: My name is Matthew Wade from the Sydney Morning Herald and The Age newspapers in Australia. Minister Sharma, I wonder if you would outline what will happen now from the Indian government as they consider the FTA, and would you give us a time when the Indian government might make a decision on whether they are going to go ahead with negotiations?

ANAND SHARMA: You see, as Minister Simon Crean has explained, we have been presented with the Feasibility Study. It is a joint study. It is fairly comprehensive. There are internal processes of both the governments of inter-departmental consultations. We will be recommending it for expeditious conclusion of those processes. Once the processes are completed, in case of India, a formal mandate for the launch of the negotiations will come. This study itself and the release today of the report is an important step signaling our shared intent, not only to deepen our special and strategic relationship, but to take it forward as was mentioned and reaffirmed during the recent visit of the Australian Prime Minister, by both Prime Ministers.

JOURNALIST: (Inaudible) from DNA Do you think we have failed to engage with Australia in trading terms if you look at our share of (inaudible) trade and China’s share of trade? And this question is to the Australian Minister, why do you think the reason is that you engage more with Chinaand less with Indiaand how do you see it going forward?

SIMON CREAN: Well I think the truth is that we took over 20 years ago an active decision to not just rely on traditional trading partners but to engage with what we then understood was going to be a very strong potential growth in the region. I think there is the sense that our engagement with Chinais an engagement almost in isolation from anywhere else – that is not true.

Our engagement with Asia has been much more embracive than simply China. Japanuntil recently still remained our strongest trading partner. Koreais amongst our top three and four. ASEAN - we have just concluded a Free Trade Agreement with ASEAN as a group - 600 million people collectively is a larger trading partner than China.

So the point I am making about Indiais that we would have ideally loved to have engaged with Indiaa lot earlier. And I think when you look at the trade that has escalated in the last couple of years, it has been quite dramatic but it has been off a low base. Now in many cases this is a function of how much countries choose to engage in and what pace they tend to engage in with the rest of the world. I think what the partnership has shown us in terms of commercial reality over recent years is what this feasibility study reinforces—that is there is strong potential, and in many sense it is limitless, it is up to us as to how much we want to make of it. But I think the other factor that has occurred is of course that in the wake of the global financial crisis, the big challenge to countries that are growing as strongly as India, is how they meet the challenges of food security, resource and energy security, skills development, water security.

These are all spaces I suppose in which the trade negotiation or the concept of a trade agreement is not about competing with each other, it is about complementing each other. And I think what this feasibility study shows, what our business engagement shows, what our bilateral discussions show is that there is huge opportunity. So, I think we can analyse the reasons in the past there, but that is the past – we are interested in the future, we are confident about the future, but we want to reinforce the future with a strong framework that enables and really encourages that opportunity and the realisation of it.

ANAND SHARMA: I will quickly add that India-Australia relations have to be seen; a) in the perspective of the present strength of the two economies, the opportunities that exist, and; also an expressed commitment of the leadership of both the governments to work together. We are engaged bilaterally, regionally, and globally through various mechanisms and platforms.

As Minister Simon Crean mentioned, I myself indicated earlier, we both value our working closely together in the East Asiasummit, in ASEAN plus six processes for the larger integration of the Asian economies. Indiaalso has identified Australiaas one of the potential regions and markets when we consciously went in for expansion and diversification of markets given the fact that there was a huge contraction because of the economic downturn in the traditional destination, so we have gone beyond the traditional basket which has been there. As nations move forward, they evolve, then this recognition is reinforced, as it has happened in our case. And I agree with Minister Simon Crean that we have to be in the backdrop of what has been in the past, we look towards the future which is very promising, and I remain optimistic.

JOURNALIST: Minister Sharma, I am Amanda Hodge from The Australian newspaper. I wonder if you could tell me, obviously Indiawould like Australiato sell it uranium and that has been a (inaudible) in the past. Could this issue be a stumbling block to the Free Trade Agreement?

ANAND SHARMA: You see, first of all, let me make it clear that our relationship which is based on mutual respect and trust is multi-dimensional, it is not a single issue relationship. On this particular subject, the positions of our respective governments are well known. Indiais a responsible and mature democracy, and we are engaged in cooperation with major countries.

At the same time, we also acknowledge the larger understanding with respect that Indiahas received, both at the Nuclear Suppliers’ Group, and the IAEA, where also Australiasupported that position. Therefore recognising our own positions, which, if I may add one sentence here, it is not only being a mature democracy and a responsible one, India has always respected whatever commitments internationally it has made and never been in breach of any understanding or international agreement. The decision of this country was taken long back by the leaders not to sign a treaty, which in our view was not only discriminatory, but our supreme national interest and our security concerns and considerations dictated otherwise, given the fact that there was both weaponisation and proliferation in India’s neighbourhood.

Now that in our view is an issue of the past, that is India’s position, and we are aware of Australian position in this regard. We are fully informed, this issue of supply of uranium did not figure in the ministerial commission, nor in our discussions. Yes, in the Business Council there were questions like this one, to which both I and Minister Simon Crean did respond. We look at the larger dimension of working together for energy security and that is by looking at our cooperation in other areas, both conventional and non-conventional energy sources, including fossil fuels, clean coal technologies, coal-bed methane, solar, wind energy, bio-fuels – we look at all that aspect when we discuss the energy security and the technologies, thank you.

JOURNALIST: While on the topic of stumbling blocks, I would like to ask that, what about issues like child labour and climate change which have been stumbling blocks as far as India’s pact with the EU is concerned, India’s negotiations with the FTA is concerned, to both the ministers, will this be a cause, will this be a part of your agreements once you enter into negotiations, will they be a part, and Minister Sharma you have had experience of a similar sort with the EU, what will your stance be in case this comes up and becomes a stumbling block here as well?

ANAND SHARMA: No, I do not think this should be a stumbling block, because India’s position, which is a principled one is very well understood. And our interlocutors, are very well and honestly informed of India’s position. You had referred to EU – recently the ninth round of negotiations has been completed and EU itself is now-- on record-- that no extraneous issues will be brought in, while discussing a broad based trade and investment agreement.

As a liberal democracy, as a constitutional democracy, Indiahas its own legislative regime, its own institutions to protect its citizens on every issue which has been referred to here. At the same time, we are part of a globalised world, we are members or signatories of other conventions and agreements, and there are other forums in which we discuss any other issue which is not related to bilateral economic engagement, specifically trade and investment. I am sure that that position is fully understood by interlocutors in Australiaalso, so therefore I do not see this as a stumbling block. Simon?

SIMON CREAN: I agree, it is not a stumbling block, but these are important issues, and I think that as the strength and the depth of our relationship continues to grow, there are other avenues, by which these sorts of issues can be addressed. To bundle them all into trade negotiations misunderstands, not that they do not overlap at times with the trade negotiations, but there are other forums for dealing with these sort of issues.

Whether its labour rights through the ILO, environmental issues, we have got a whole global framework which are working closely with, these broader issues of child labour. We have dialogue with India, we want to deepen that dialogue with India, but this did not come up in the discussions today, what we are talking about is a framework for going ahead with a comprehensive FTA, I think if we strengthen that building block, it continues to open up important opportunities for dialogue on these other issues.

JOURNALIST: Sir, are you also looking at some time frame for completing this FTA?

ANAND SHARMA: As we said, once the internal processes are completed, by both the governments, the next step will be taken, the study is the feasibility study for the FTA only. So there are inter-departmental consultations, which I explained.

JOURNALIST: Sir it will be a comprehensive, both including services and investment?

ANAND SHARMA: Yes.

JOURNALIST: Will we get a copy of that?

ANAND SHARMA: Sure. It will be in public domain. You know, both are countries, are democracies, open societies, and in our country, we have a right to information, I think which is recognized even by our friends and we did talk about it very briefly today, as to how extensive this right is available to the Indian citizens.

JOURNALIST: Can this be seen as Australiasomehow trying to rebalance its trade portfolio, because recently there have been a few not so pleasant incidents, especially there was the arrest of Rio Tinto officials in Chinaand all that. Do you feel the need to rebalance your trading engagements?

SIMON CREAN: No, not at all, in fact if you look at the Rio Tinto exercise and the Stern Hu exercise, it has not been a barrier to the continuing engagement on the Free Trade Agreement, nor to the strength of trade that we are engaged in with China.

Those are not what is driving this. What is driving this is the realisation that India is a huge market with huge growth potential going forward. Interestingly in comparison to Chinait is a much more diversified economy, it has a significant services base, and significantly advanced manufacturing.

In the case of agriculture, it has more arable land, so in a balanced sense it is an economy as well as a democracy that presents a whole different range of opportunities and challenges for us. I do not think we would ever approach it on the basis of saying that we want to rebalance. We as a nation of 22 million people have our future tied to trading with the rest of the world. That is why we have been the strongest of advocates in terms of trade liberalisation, but there is no point in opening markets unless you are competitive enough to take advantage of them, and that is why we have also been the strongest advocates in terms of structural reform and efficiencies and productivity driven activities within our own economy.

These have been fundamental reasons why we are able to weather the economic storm, so for us the agenda does not stop and when you have got so many areas of opportunity going forward, our task is to engage actively with them. Though before I came here, I was for a fortnight in Latin America. The potential for trade with Latin Americais also huge, but this is also the significance of our bilateral relationship here. We do not just see the trade between our two countries. If the trading opportunity is out there, if we have got a whole range of new emerging markets and particularly markets that are going to be growing faster than the traditional markets and the developed markets for years to come; our task is to not just take the advantage between ourselves but to also look for what we can do together in penetrating those third markets. So, we see enormous opportunity, feasibility study maps out a course, our task is to give effect to it.

JOURNALIST: I am Manoj Kumar from the Reuters news agency, Sir, do you see a possibility of signing this comprehensive trade agreement with Indiain 2011? And how much bilateral trade potential do you see with Indiaat the end of 2011?

SIMON CREAN: Well, I think that the question of the bilateral trade between the two countries, if you look at the last couple of years, there has been a growth in two way trade of around 25 per cent per annum. That is without an FTA. So the potential beyond it is defined by those boundaries and the question of how quickly we move to it and how comprehensively..I have learnt from much experience in these trade negotiations not to put a timetable on things, to drive expedition at all points, that understand the hooks that can frustrate that expedition. Setting a timetable, you can become captive to the timetable. What we want to be is owners of a strategic agenda going forward, not captive to a timetable.

ENDS

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