‘India will help any nation with foodgrains in short supply’
ravi.dutt@livemint.com
NEW DELHI: India is willing and ready to support any nation facing a scarcity of foodgrains and availability of adequate goods and services of any nature, commerce and industry minister Piyush Goyal said, amid a shortage in global wheat output and supply-chain disruptions due to the Russia-Ukraine conflict.
In an interview on Saturday after India and Australia signed the Economic Cooperation and Trade Agreement (ECTA), Goyal, who also holds the cabinet portfolio for consumer affairs, food and public distribution, and textiles, said countries are keen to expand on Indo-Pacific economic partnership and the economic cooperation and trade agreement with Australia will open up opportunities for the Indian wine industry and grape farmers. With a raft of other free-trade agreements (FTAs) being negotiated, Goyal pointed out that the FTAs with the United Arab Emirates and Australia send out a message that India is open to big engagements and is looking to expand its international footprint. Edited excerpts:
Australia already has a trade agreement with Japan and the US. So are we talking about a wider Quad economic cooperation framework? Is the IndiaAustralia FTA a stepping stone towards that?
I’ll be jumping the gun if we start discussing that. Clearly, the Indo-Pacific economic partnership is something that all the countries are very keen to expand. Japan, Australia, the US and India, both as part of the Quad and as countries that share values of democracy, where the rule of law prevails, where there is a high element of transparency; we believe that we all have to work together to create resilient supply chains.
While the Ukraine war has led to human misery, it has also opened up opportunities to help other countries. What is India’s strategy?
India does not look at opportunities out of adversity, of the nature that we are seeing happening and playing out. We believe we are very sensitive to the pain and suffering of the people over there. We believe the conflicts should come to an end, and peace should prevail.
However, the Russia-Ukraine conflict has caused disruption to the supply chains in the rest of the world.
India stands willing and ready to support any nation that is threatened with the problem of food and food grains and the availability of adequate goods and services of any nature. India stands ready to support any nation to fulfil its requirements, such as wheat and medicines. India will be willing, ready and happy to support nations.
India buying Russian oil has elicited a strong response. We are negotiating FTAs with the EU and UK. Are we seeing an impact of it in our negotiations with these countries?
I don’t think that there is any impact of other issues on our trade talks. They are independent issues. You have already seen that we finalized an agreement with Australia.