Presenting his country’s principled position on any bilateral dispute or conflict, the Ambassador said that any bilateral dispute should be resolved through peaceful negotiations, through diplomatic dialogue and through mutual understanding. “There is no place for war”, he says. “There is no place for threat of force, there is no place for use of violence, we are strictly against it”.
Touching upon the possibility of forming a strategic partnership between Armenia and India, Kishan Dan Dewal said that the political relations between the two countries are strong and are going to get stronger now.
ARMENPRESS presents the 2nd part of the interview with the Indian Ambassador below:
To read the 1st part of the interview, click the following link:
- Mr. Dewal, what other current and potential projects can the two countries initiate or implement together in the key areas of cooperation, as political dialogue, transport, economic and trade, culture and education or other spheres of mutual interest?
- That’s a very long list.
- I’m sorry, it is.
- That’s quite long list, but I can just tell that both countries have great potential in many fields. First of all is the political sphere, where we need to enhance, increase our political interaction to the highest possible level. When Foreign Minister visited India, he carried with him an invitation from Armenia’s Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan for our Prime Minister. So, we are working on increasing our political context. That is one.
On educational sphere, as I mentioned you, Armenia has limitations in terms of receiving more students because of the number of seats that could be offered to foreign students yet and for which more infrastructure is needed, but because of the Ukraine crisis we expect more Indian students coming this year.
On cultural sphere we are working on many projects and, as I mentioned to you, I would like to show more India to Armenian people and also more Armenia to our Indian people. That is on the cultural aspect.
Lastly, I want to mention that our trade between India and Armenia right now has touched almost 180 million US dollars. It is very less compared to our other trade partners, but there's a very positive trend which has gone and there's a huge potential to fulfill the demands of Armenian society in Armenian market from India especially when we see the crisis in the near neighborhood and we are ready to offer our all kind of support and all kind of products that can be useful for the Armenian economy and also we’d like to get more Armenian stuff in the Indian market, right now it is very less.
And thirdly, both countries are working on opening trade corridors, working on bringing more contact through our connectivity projects and especially through the international North-South Transport Corridor and using Chabahar port in Iran which India has developed. So, we are working on this aspect as well.
- The trade and economy are always key components of bilateral relations between countries, aren’t they?
- Yes, they are stimulus. See, I mean unless you have some economic interest, the political relations don’t move on their own. So, I’d say that economy is the stimulus for any society. I mean, you and me are working because of economy. Of course, also because of the love towards country, but economy is a very strong stimulus. So, unless economic and trade relations are strong, unless there are potential, other fields don’t move that fast, I would say.
- Nations like Armenia and India – we know more about culture, history, but you cannot cease to be a part of modern world, especially when you are talking about developing bilateral relations between the countries. I was reading recently about Armenian-Indian mutual trade: according to the Statistical Committee of Armenia, ArmStat, the trade turnover between Armenia and India amounted about $181 million in 2021. This is a very good dynamic, but I don’t know the content of this trade, what is fostering, activating the trade between the two countries. Can you mention specific data?
- In the last 3-4 years, there is more and more realization in the Armenian economy, that India is supplying to the world all kinds of products, including medicine among pharmaceutical products. We exported this year COVID vaccines, textile, food items, you name it and we are there, also the IT services. Now there is an interest among Armenian businessmen to engage India more and more and that is why we see very good upward trend in our trade figures in the last years. Specifically, in the last years there has been more export from Armenia to India than from India to Armenia, and quite a big chunk of it is gold export.
- This year is notable also for the Indian nation, as India celebrates the 75th anniversary of the Independence. India has acquired a prominent role in international relations. Prime Minister Modi has put forward several initiatives domestically and internationally. Could you please present some of the most important?
- As you know this in August 2022, we will be completing 75 years of our Independence; it is a very big and important milestone for us. This will also give us satisfaction as a nation that we have come a long way after our Independence. When we got independence in 1947, we were a country with 12% of literacy rate, and now our literacy rate is touching 80%. That time India was in a very poor economic condition, today we are the 6th largest economy in the world. We were struggling even to provide basic food and necessities to our countrymen, today we are a food surplus producing country, we are exporting food to the world. So we have achieved many, many things in the last 75 years, including our achievements in science and technology, defense and other fields. But to celebrate these occasions, our Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi has initiated and guided us to start some new initiatives. I will name some of them.
One of them is called “Atmanirbhar Bharat” – self-independent India. There is a move to make India self-independent in any field, whatever we are importing, now we are trying to make it within India. So that comes to our next program, which is called “Make in India”. They are intertwined, once you want to become self-independent, then the program “Make in India” comes, and in “Make in India” we are trying to bring technologies from all over the world, from friendly countries, who are ready to share with us, and also we are inventing our own new innovative ideas, making those services and products in India.
Thirdly, we have stated what is called “Startup India”, new initiative by the Government of India to encourage new business ideas, innovative ideas, and give them support, governmental support and all other facilitation, for youngsters. By this “Startup India” there has been a very very positive progress. Within last 3 years many unicorns have appeared in India after this initiative has taken off.
Fourthly, our Prime Minister Modi has given very much emphasis on cleanliness within our country, for which we have started “Swachh Bharat” that is Clean India movement and almost every person is now a part of this mass movement, where we are trying to make our country not look like any other developing country, but look like any other modern developed country, giving signal that India is now moving ahead in all spheres of life.
- How is the pandemic situation in India now in terms of the fight against COVID-19?
- As you know COVID-19 has impacted the whole world and we are no exception to it, it started from Wuhan, China, but has taken over the entire world and you have seen how situations were difficult in Europe, in Italy, in US, so we were not exception. In first surge of the pandemic we were able to contain it to great extent, but the second wave was little difficult for us, but with our own local resources and management we were able to overcome that difficult time. Not only did we overcome ourselves, but we exported and supplied medicines, pharmaceuticals and vaccines to the entire world, we also gave as donations to many friendly countries, we supported this under “Vaccine Maitri” program, that is Vaccine friendship, under that program we sent help to more than 70 friendly countries. Once we overcome this situation, the third wave came to India, but because of our preparations there was less loss of lives and we were able to contain it very very fast and in today’s time while we are talking we have resorted back to our normal life, normal economic activities and everything is almost back to normal, we have opened our airports, flights are going and now we are inviting tourists also.
- So, in general, we can say that situation is more improved, better than one or two years ago in terms of coronavirus, isn’t it?
- I would say that situation in India has normalized, while we are speaking today, the total number of COVID-19 cases are now coming every day to 2000, which is miniscule for Indian population, it’s not threatening. Because of our vaccine program, where we have vaccinated majority of our eligible population, coronavirus pandemic has subsided and it is going to go down. We hope that it will not come back.
- Coming to the regional political issues: India was always active and observant concerning Nagorno Karabakh conflict and the regional security in South Caucasus. Indian MFA in May 2021 and Minister Jaishankar during his visit to Yerevan in October 2021 made important statements regarding Azerbaijan’s military encroachment into Armenia’s territory and India’s support to the peaceful settlement of the Nagorno Karabakh conflict within the OSCE Minsk Group Co-Chairmanship. It would be very interesting to know what are the main priorities of India in our region and your country’s approaches to the long-lasting and comprehensive resolution of the Nagorno Karabakh conflict.
- As you know we have always supported peaceful resolution of any bilateral dispute or conflict, Nagorno Karabakh is no exception for us and officially it has been our position and it continues, that any bilateral dispute should be resolved through peaceful negotiations, through diplomatic dialogue and through mutual understanding. There is no place for war, there is no place for threat of force, there is no place for use of violence, we are strictly against it. That is one.
Secondly, we have always supported the OSCE Minsk Group format, because this is the internationally recognized format, which is acceptable to Armenia and which we also support and we welcome their efforts to find long-lasting solution to this issue. So we continue to support the resolution through the OSCE Minsk Group under the Chairmanship of three Co-Chairs (USA, France and Russia).
Apart from this, as you know, wherever we found that there was international law violation, we have issued very strong statements, they are on our website, you can refer to it, and we have issued statement on couple of occasions. When our Foreign Minister was in Armenia in October 2021, we referred to this issue and we have made our position very clear on this.
- And as we see, we have very tough dynamic international and regional issues. How much these recent developments and processes around our region impact on this kind of issues in your perception? How do you see these processes in Caucasus, around Caucasus?
- I would say that South Caucasus for us is our extended neighbourhood. Peace and stability in this region is in our interest and this is what we expect and we hope that it will remain like this and peace and stability is not only in the interest of any country, it is also in interest of your country, it is in Armenia’s interest, if peace and tranquility and stability remain in this area. As regards new developments, our Government, my Foreign Ministry is fully aware of what is happening in the region, we are keeping watch, we have principled position on resolution of conflicts, but we would welcome if any peace process takes place through which lasting solution can be found out, we will certainly support such a position.
- Yerevan and New Delhi seem to share common interests also in regional, political and security areas. As we all know, there is an ongoing conflict around Kashmir region with Pakistan’s destructive role. In this regard, Armenia has always supported India on the issue of Jammu and Kashmir, as Armenian officials stated permanently. On the other hand, the other well-known fact is that Pakistan is a close ally of Azerbaijan and Turkey supporting Azerbaijani side in Nagorno Karabakh conflict, including the 2020 war against the Artsakh Republic. Therefore, Armenia highly appreciates India’s principled position and continuous support for the peaceful and comprehensive resolution of the Nagorno Karabakh issue. On your opinion, what can be done to build a strategic partnership between Armenia and India in terms of political and military-technical cooperation to address common challenges and threat perceptions?
- Good question. A difficult one, but I’ll try to answer. First of all, I thank the Government of Armenia and Armenian people for being very supportive to the issue of Jammu and Kashmir, which is an integral part of India. That is very important to be underlined. In the recent past we have made a domestic legislation, through which the former state of Jammu and Kashmir is now a Union Territory, i.e. administered from the Center, Union Territory of Ladakh and Jammu and Kashmir. As regards the role of Pakistan, as you are aware and everyone else is aware, that Pakistan has been making transport of terrorism into our territory, and we have been able to thwart those efforts continuously. I am happy to share with you that in the last 2 years, when J & K has become a Union Territory, along with Ladakh, the incidents of terrorism have been controlled to a great extent and the support that earlier they were getting is not any more there, I mean, the support of some vested local elements which they were getting, they are not getting anymore. The people of Jammu and Kashmir fully understand that their prosperity lies in peace. Because of new legislation applicable to the former state of Jammu and Kashmir now have been enacted for this Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir, because of this new change and there is positive change, there is economic growth, there is peace in the area.
On the second part of the question, I wish to reiterate that I have mentioned, that our political relations are strong, they are going to get stronger now, we share a lot of common concerns and common interests, there are platforms to exchange views on those concerns. One of such platforms is Foreign Office consultations, which we regularly conduct and this year we conducted a few months back in India and in Armenia, and also high-level visits and high-level meetings are also a very positive signal in this direction. As regards any other common platforms and strategies, I think both sides are working on this and as and when we feel that we will have any such dialogue, we will be willing to do that. Now we are working very actively to engage Armenia more politically.
- In this context, one of the recent significant news is that you met with Suren Papikyan, Armenian Minister of Defense, as far as I remember you were talking about developing the cooperation in defense sphere. Could you tell us more detailed about this discussion, how the cooperation in defense is going to be enlarged between Armenia and India?
- As regards defense cooperation, there is interest from Armenian side to have more defense ties, which we understand, and as you know, we have already initiated such cooperation. I visited Mr. Papikyan as a courtesy, as he took over newly as a Defense Minister, it was more like a courtesy call rather than any detailed discussion, but both sides are moving in positive direction.
- Do we have already substantial military cooperation between the two countries or are we going to create them? As much as you can talk about publicly.
- As I mentioned, we are working positively, there is no need to give details in this interview, but both sides are working to safeguard each other’s interest, that is very important, and secondly, to have strong partnership in all possible fields, which I mentioned earlier and when we say all possible fields, defense is also one of them, on which we are working.
- Armenia participates in Iran’s initiative of “Persian Gulf – Black Sea” international transit corridor project along with Iran, Georgia, Greece and Bulgaria. We are aware that Indian side’s interest in this initiative was one of the topics discussed with the Armenian side during Minister Jaishankar’s visit to Yerevan. Could you comment this information and present India’s position on its possible involvement in “Persian Gulf – Black Sea”?
- Yes, sure. During the visit of our Foreign Minist...
