MR. AXWORTHY - ADDRESS TO THE PARTNERSHIP SUMMIT OFTHE CONFEDERATION OF INDIAN INDUSTRY'CANADA-INDIA PARTNERSHIP: PROSPERITY AND SECURITY' - CALCUTTA, INDIA
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NOTES FOR AN ADDRESS BY
THE HONOURABLE LLOYD AXWORTHY
MINISTER OF FOREIGN AFFAIRS
TO THE PARTNERSHIP SUMMIT OF
THE CONFEDERATION OF INDIAN INDUSTRY
'CANADA-INDIA PARTNERSHIP: PROSPERITY AND SECURITY'
CALCUTTA, India
January 10, 1997
This document is also available on the Department's Internet site: http://www.dfait-maeci.gc.ca
Namaskar! It is both an honour and a pleasure to address this distinguished group
of Indian and Canadian business leaders.
The first step on the road that brought me here today was the visit of Prime
Minister Chrétien at the head of the ground-breaking Team Canada mission to India,
one year ago. That visit, as you may recall, brought seven provincial premiers,
two cabinet ministers and representatives of over 200 Canadian companies to India.
Exactly a year ago today, January 10, the Prime Minister inaugurated Canada Day at
the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII), which honoured Canada as your Partner
country and gave the Team Canada visit to India a most successful launch. We are
most grateful to the CII for this all and for the support it has given to
strengthening our business links.
That visit signalled a bold new chapter in India-Canada relations. And it could
not have come at a better time. Both our countries have been re-situating
themselves in the changing international social, political and economic
environment. In Canada's case, the end of the Cold War has allowed us to expand
our ties with a great many more nations, just as it has created the need for more
international co-operation.
For India, your new economic dynamism has expanded your interest in trade and the
corresponding need for a stable international environment in which trade can
flourish. As India becomes increasingly engaged internationally on both the
political and the economic fronts, it is emerging as one of the major world
players of the 21st century. Canada recognizes this, and we want to give India
the priority it deserves in our foreign relations.
As we face the challenges and seize the opportunities that the new international
environment presents, we have the chance to build a strong and lasting
partnership. By partnership I mean a relationship based on mutual respect and
complementarity; a relationship in which both sides benefit; and a relationship
that is wide-ranging and balanced.
I would like to outline for you today some of the steps that we in government have
taken to build this relationship, not least by encouraging and facilitating
private sector partnerships. And I would like to speak to two of the most
significant aspects of our bilateral relations: economic ties, and co-operation in
security.
Building on Team Canada
The Team Canada visit launched the reinvigoration of Canada-India relations. It
was followed by the visit of Minister Gujral to Canada in September 1996. This
highly successful visit was crucial to maintaining our momentum and laying the
foundations for agreements we have now reached. Another key event was your
[Confederation of Indian Industry] visit to Canada in June 1996.
In response to Minister Gujral's invitation, I have in my turn come to India. On
Wednesday, I met with him to discuss ways in which we could make this enhanced
relationship a reality. We agreed to form a Joint Ministerial Committee, which
will allow us, along with our respective cabinet colleagues, to consult regularly
on a wide range of political and economic issues as they arise.
I will be meeting Minister Gujral again on Monday to officially open the new
Canadian office in Chandigarh, the capital of Punjab and Haryana states. This
office, in addition to assisting visa applicants, will help build contacts between
Canadian and Indian businesses active in the region. It will complement our
recently opened trade office in Bangalore and our newly appointed Honorary Consul
in Madras. To further expand the services we provide to Canadians, we also intend
to appoint an Honorary Consul in this city, Calcutta, in the near future.
As you know, I have not come to India alone on this visit. Building on the Team
Canada approach pioneered by our Prime Minister, I am accompanied by a
distinguished group of Parliamentarians and the Attorney General of the province
of British Columbia. As a sign of the importance of trade and investment in our
relationship with India, I have also taken advantage of my visit here to lead a
delegation of representatives of Canadian businesses in the telecommunications,
insurance and science and technology sectors. These companies are world leaders
in their fields, and they have much to offer India and other countries.
Economic Relations
The expansion of our trade and investment ties is a major element of our enhanced
relationship. As a result of the Team Canada visit, 75 business deals worth over
$3.3 billion were signed, over 95 per cent of which are still active. Canada-India trade in 1995 totalled almost $1 billion. We have seen a dip in trade
figures in 1996, but the size of India's market and its rate of growth suggest
that our trade could grow significantly in the years to come.
Another reason to predict growth in trade is the complementarity of our two
economies. For its part, Canada has much to offer India in terms of high
technology as it expands and upgrades its infrastructure. This is particularly
the case in the four sectors that we have chosen to focus on: telecommunications
and information technology; power and energy equipment and services; oil and gas;
and environmental products and services. Canada also has a great deal to offer in
the service sector, including engineering and financial services.
In addition to trade, we will be encouraging greater Canadian investment in India.
Canada was the ninth-largest direct investor in India in 1995; we hope to move up
in the standings in the coming years. The Bell/Tata communications project in
Andhra Pradesh will be a major factor in boosting Canadian investment.
Investment is not a one-way street either; Indian companies are increasingly
investing in Canada. These are smart companies. Investing in Canada gives them
free market access to the United States and Mexico through the North American Free
Trade Agreement, as well as to Chile and Israel through bilateral free trade
agreements. And these investments will benefit India, as the profits these
companies make are repatriated to those who invested in them.
Economic Reform
The driving force behind trade and investment, and potential growth in trade and
investment, is the private sector. It is people like yourselves. One of the key
roles of government should be to facilitate and encourage your efforts. That is
why the program of economic reform that India has undertaken is so crucial.
Minister Gujral and I signed an agreement and witnessed two others that exemplify
the role of government as a facilitator of reform and liberalization. They
involve co-operation in developing India's private sector, in energy
infrastructure, and in improving tax administration. Canada will provide
development assistance funding for these projects totalling almost $30 million.
India is to be commended for its perseverance in the reform of its economy. We in
Canada know from our own experience with fiscal deficit reduction and trade
liberalization that reform does not always satisfy everyone. But we have also
found that efforts in these areas can have a substantial positive effect. In the
five years since Canada entered the North American Free Trade Agreement, for
example, our exports of manufactured products have grown from one third to close
to half of production. What is more, the greatest strides were accomplished in
areas liberalized under the Free Trade Agreement.
Our experience has convinced us that open economies tend to do better at absorbing
new technologies that are essential to sustainable growth. Open economies are
forced to compete with the world's most successful exporting countries, and they
can more easily adapt because they are constantly exposed to international
markets. Again, it is the private sector -- business people like yourselves -- who
are most directly exposed to these benefits of an open, liberalized economy.
Co-operation in Security
Governments today may be leaving the centre stage of economic relations to the
private sector. But they remain front and centre in guaranteeing the most basic
conditions necessary for economic growth: peace and stability. Seventeen hundred
years ago, the great Indian poet Kalidasa wrote that "a prosperous State is heaven
on earth." To maintain that heaven on earth, the State must be at peace. Without
a basic level of security, prosperity could not survive long.
A good example of the link between prosperity and security is the agreement
recently signed by India with Bangladesh on the distribution of Ganges water.
This was a positive move, which, by improving relations and regularizing access to
an important natural resource, has made both countries more secure. It also
allows both sides to provide for basic economic and human needs in a stable,
predictable environment.
As a major power and emerging global economic force, India has a key role to play
in international and regional security. Canada is eager to work with India in
enhancing security and prosperity in a wide range of issues and institutions.
With our shared democratic values, India and Canada see eye-to-eye on many
security questions, including those relating to Asia.
India and Canada have a long history of co-operation in international security,
including our joint efforts under international auspices to bring peace to
Indochina, to Cambodia and to the former Yugoslavia. The challenge before us now
is to adapt and work together to combat new types of security threats in a rapidly
evolving international environment: terrorism, drugs, environmental degradation
and the abuse of human rights.
In the face of these threats, Canada and India must continue to co-operate
effectively, be it in the ASEAN [Association of Southeast Asian Nations] Regional
Forum [ARF], in the UN, or bilaterally. To do this we must forge the new tools
required to make our multilateral institutions and international diplomacy in
general more effective.
Indian participation in the ARF, which is emerging as the main forum for
institutionalized security co-operation and dialogue in Asia, is crucial. Canada
was glad to support India's successful bid to join the ARF last year. We look
forward to India's contribution to the ARF's work, and to India's assistance in
making the ARF stronger and more active.
In terms of regional security, Burma is just one example of the key role played by
India. As the world's largest democracy and now as a member of the ARF, India is
well placed to deal with a regime whose internal problems and poor human rights
record are destabilizing to the surrounding region.
If we look more broadly at human security, there is much that Canada can do to
work with India to improve poverty-driven problems, such as child labour or
environmental degradation. These are issues that concern both Canadians and
Indians for a range of reasons, including the social and economic instability and
damage they produce. I have discussed the issue of child labour extensively with
Minister Gujral, and I will be announcing some of the ways in which we will co-operate in this regard later today.
Looking Ahead
The new chapter in relations between our two countries does not end with the
agreements I have described to you today. Looking ahead in 1997, we hope to hold
the first meeting of the Joint Ministerial Council in Canada in the first half of
the year. In February, Canada will be participating in CII's 1997 international
engineering trade fair as the partner country for environment.
As host of the APEC [Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation forum] process, Canada's
attention will be very much focussed on Asia throughout 1997. In this role, we
will continue to press for Indian membership in the APEC Working Groups to which
it has requested entry. Canada will press for accession criteria that will enable
India to join as a full partner.
At the same time, Canada will hold a whole series of activities as part of our
Year of Asia Pacific. Our aim is not only to heighten Canadians' awareness of
APEC members and other countries of the Asia Pacific region, but also to
strengthen the human ties that bind us to the region. In March, India will be
featured at the Team Canada Business Conference in Toronto and in the Asia Pacific
week in Atlantic Canada. This will be followed by meetings of the Canada-India
Business Council in Vancouver, Toronto and Montreal in April. And in June the
Indo-Canadian Chamber of Commerce will celebrate its 20th anniversary in Toronto.
Conclusion
Building up the relationship between India and Canada to reach its full potential
will take time. Our aim is a partnership that is rich, comprehensive and
balanced. It should include co-operation not just in the two areas I have
focussed on in my remarks today -- economic ties and security -- but in equally
significant areas, such as development assistance and cultural and educational
exchange.
History shows that Indian philosophy and culture enriched the lives of the people
of Southeast Asia through trade, not conquest. Canada looks forward to enhanced
trade relations with India that will offer not only mutual financial rewards, but
the opportunity to enrich each other spiritually and culturally through greater
contact.
A future in which Canada and India work closely together is not just wishful
thinking. We have much in common, including deep democratic roots, shared
Commonwealth traditions and a commitment to a just and stable world. We also have
important human ties. Over half a million Canadians trace their origins to India;
that's a large number in a country of only 30 million.
But our human links do not end there. They are built through every contact we
have with one another, including the growing ties between business people on both
sides. As members of the business community, no one knows better than you the
meaning of the word partnership. You can play a key role in making our
relationship a true partnership, one that strives toward our mutual goal: that of
a more just, secure and prosperous world.
Thank you.