1996 January Volume No XLII No 1 1995 CONTENTS Foreign Affairs Record VOL XLII NO 1 January, 1996 CONTENTS BRAZIL Visit of His Excellency Dr. Fernando Henrique Cardoso, President of the Federative Republic of Brazil to India 1 External Affairs Minister of India called on President of the Federative Republic of Brazil 1 Prime Minister of India met the President of Brazil 2 CAMBODIA External Affairs Minister's visit to Cambodia 3 Visit to India by First Prime Minister of Cambodia 4 Visit of First Prime Minister of Cambodia H.R.H. Samdech Krom Preah 4 CANADA Visit of Canadian Prime Minister to India 5 Joint Statement 6 FRANCE Condolence Message from the President of India to President of France on the Passing away of the former President of France 7 Condolence Message from the Prime Minister of India to President of France on the Passing away of the Former President of France 7 INDIA Agreement signed between India and Pakistan on the Prohibition of attack against Nuclear Installations and facilities 8 Nomination of Dr. (Smt.) Najma Heptullah, Deputy Chairman, Rajya Sabha by UNDP to serve as a Distinguished Human Development Ambassador 8 Second Meeting of the India-Uganda Joint Committee 9 Visit of Secretary General of Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) to India 10 IRAN Visit of Foreign Minister of Iran to India 10 LAOS External Affairs Minister's visit to Laos 11 NEPAL Visit of External Affairs Minister to Nepal 13 OFFICIAL SPOKESMAN'S STATEMENTS Discussion on Political and Economic Deve- lopments in the region and elsewhere by the two leaders 13 Visit of Foreign Minister of Iran to India 14 Canada on India's Nuclear Tests 14 Report on Nuclear Test Ban Treaty 15 Rocket attack on a Mosque in Pakistan- occupied Kashmir 15 PAKISTAN Indian Hockey Team unable to participate in the World Youth Hockey Festival at Rawalpindi 16 PALESTINE Message from the Prime Minister of India to President of the State of Palestine of his Elec- tion as the Ra'ees of the Executive Authority of the Palestinian Council 16 SINGAPORE Visit of Former Prime Minister of Singapore and now Senior Minister in the Singapore Government 17 Discussions of Bilateral Economic Relations between two countries at External Affairs Minister's Meeting 18 THAILAND Visit to Thailand, Cambodia and Laos by External Affairs Minister 18 Visit to Thailand for the Third Session of the Indo-Thai Joint Commission Meeting by the Minister for External Affairs 21 Visit of External Affairs Minister to Thailand 22 TURKEY Visit of Turkish Chief of General Staff to India 22 UNITED KINGDOM 32 Member UK Delegation to attend India Intechmart '96 23 ANNEXURE I Joint Indo-Brazilian Declaration 24 ANNEXURE II MOU Regarding Cooperation in the Field of Highway Transportation 27 BRAZIL CENTRAL AFRICAN REPUBLIC INDIA CAMBODIA CANADA FRANCE PAKISTAN UGANDA IRAN LAOS NEPAL USA REPUBLIC OF SINGAPORE THAILAND TURKEY UNITED KINGDOM Date : Jan 01, 1996 Volume No XLII No 1 1995 BRAZIL Visit of His Excellency Dr. Fernando Henrique Cardoso, President of the Federative Republic of Brazil to India The following is the text of a press release issued in New Delhi on Jan 22, 1996 on a visit of His Excellency Dr. Fernando Henrique Cardoso, President of the Federative Republic of Brazil to India: His Excellency Dr. Fernando Henrique Cardoso, President of the Federative Republic of Brazil will be paying an official visit to India from January 24-27, 1996. He will also be the Chief Guest at the celebration of the Republic Day on 26th January, 1996. The Ministers for Foreign Affairs, Agriculture and Science and Technology will be accompanying him. During his visit, he would meet the President of the Republic of India and the Prime Minister. He will also hold official talks with the Prime Minister. He would witness the Republic Day parade on 26th January. The Vice-President and the Minister of External Affairs would also call on him. He would be visiting Bombay on the 25th of January where he would meet the Governor and the Chief Minister of Maharashtra. He would also be speaking at a luncheon meeting with Indian business organised by the CII. At Delhi, he would be addressing a meeting of Indian business organised by the JBC Secretariat of FICCI at 1000 hours on the 27th January, and he will also be addressing a gathering at the India International Centre and speaking on the subject of "Social Consequences of Globalisation: Improvement or Marginalisation". His visit to India will give further impetus to bilateral relations and cooperation. BRAZIL CENTRAL AFRICAN REPUBLIC INDIA USA Date : Jan 22, 1996 Volume No XLII No 1 1995 BRAZIL External Affairs Minister of India called on President of the Federative Republic of Brazil The following is the text of a press release issued in New Delhi on Jan 25, 1996 on a visit of H.E. Dr. Fernando Henrique Cardoso, President of the Federative Republic of Brazil to India: Shri Pranab Mukherjee, External Affairs Minister, called on H.E. Dr. Fernando Henrique Cardoso, President of the Federative Republic of Brazil on 24th January, 1996. External Affairs Minister welcomed President Cardoso to India and hoped that the first state visit of the President of Brazil, especially as the Chief Guest at the Republic Day celebrations, would give great impetus to bilateral relations. External Affairs Minister said that given our mutual economic reforms programmes, there exists a comparative advantage to strengthen economic and commercial ties. <P-1> President Cardoso agreed that the two countries had common interests and could work together in all fields, political, science & technology, commercial, telecommunications and energy. The need to cooperate in international fora was underscored. He also spoke in favour of instituting chairs on Indian and Brazilian studies, in the respective countries. The Vice President, Shri K. R. Narayanan called on the Brazilian President in the evening. He mentioned that there were great affinities between the two countries. President Cardoso concurred while stressing the importance of exchanges in the field of education and culture. President Cardoso called on the President Dr. Shanker Dayal Sharma late in the evening in Rashtrapati Bhavan and discussed matters of mutual interest. The talks also focussed on multilateral issues. In particular, the need for the reorganisation of the United Nations system and for expansion of the permanent membership of the Security Council was underlined. Separately, the Brazilian Agriculture Minister accompanying President Cardoso had meetings with Shri Arvind Netam, Minister of State for Agriculture, Shri Ajit Singh, Minister of Food and Shri Bhuvanesh Chaturvedi, Minister of State for Science & Technology. The Brazilian Business delegation and Indian businessmen met in a special session of the JBC, which was addressed by Secretary (West) in the Ministry of External Affairs. The meeting generated tremendous interest and raised expectations about the finalisation of concrete cooperative ventures between the private sectors of the two countries. BRAZIL INDIA CENTRAL AFRICAN REPUBLIC UNITED KINGDOM USA Date : Jan 25, 1996 Volume No XLII No 1 1995 BRAZIL Prime Minister of India met the President of Brazil The following is the text of a press release issued in New Delhi on Jan 27, 1996 on a visit of the President of Brazil, H.E. Fernando Henrique Cardoso to India and was the chief Guest at the Republic Day function: Prime Minister Mr. P. V. Narasimha Rao met the President of Brazil, H.E. Fernando Henrique Cardoso at Hyderabad House on 27th January, 1996. Prime Minister extended a warm welcome to President Cardoso, who is the first Brazilian Head of State to visit India and was the Chief Guest at the Republic Day function. The two leaders agreed that the climate was propitious and that there were numerous areas in which the two countries could cooperate fruitfully with each other. The areas identified were those of Science & Technology, Frontier Sciences, Infrastructure, Railways, Hydro-electric power, Gasohol Technology, Agriculture and Food Processing, Health and Medicine, Biotechnology, etc. They reviewed the programme drawn up for fostering science and technology cooperation. The two leaders agreed that following economic liberalisation in their respective countries, there now existed great potential for increasing trade and economic cooperation. This was also stated by the President of Brazil at the meeting this morning at FICCI where he addressed a large gathering of Indian and Brazilian businessmen. <P-2> The two leaders expressed a view that the two countries should cooperate at the international fora towards establishing an environment for development as well as for the reform of the entire UN system, including expansion of the Security Council. The area of cooperation on the multilateral economic agenda, such as the WTO, was also spelt out. The Prime Minister expressed a view that given the possibilities of close and fruitful cooperation that can now be actuated between the two countries, it would be useful to set up a bilateral Joint Commission. This was readily accepted by President Cardoso. At a signing ceremony following the meeting, the following documents were signed: 1. The Joint Indo-Brazilian Declaration. 2. Joint Statement on Brazil-India Agenda for Scientific and Technological Cooperation. 3. Formation and terms of reference for Indo-Brazilian Commercial Council. 4. MOU on Cooperation in Nuclear Research. 5. Indo-Brazil Common Agenda on Environment. Earlier, during the meeting between