During the interview, the ambassador shared his opinions on the current situation with the coronavirus in his country, the impact of the pandemic on relations between the two countries, future plans and other issues.

AzVision.az presents the interview:

Mr. Ambassador, today the Coronavirus epidemic has become a major problem for the whole world. Therefore, I would like to start our conversation on this topic. What is the current situation in India and which measures are being taken by your respective country to overcome problems caused by the Coronavirus?

The Coronavirus pandemic has caused huge challenges to the global community and India is not an exception to this. The Government and people of India are making all efforts to combat and defeat this disease. Under the leadership of our Prime Minister Mr. Narendra Modi, India has ensured speed, scale and determination in the handling of this crisis. India took every possible step to ensure that we contain the spread of the virus. Although India has a robust healthcare system, we swung into action and added capacity in terms of infrastructure as well as manpower. This has resulted in India having one of the lowest infections and deaths per million population. India has also shown a very good recovery rate at around 64%.

Today, India has 1201 dedicated Covid-19 Hospitals, 2611 dedicated Covid-19 Healthcare Centres and 9909 Covid-19 Care Centres to look after Covid-19 patients from those with very severe to very mild symptoms. For instance, a 10,000 bed facility has been recently established within a span of one week. As on date around than 12 million samples have been tested for Covid-19.

Two indigenously developed COVID-19 vaccines, namely COVAXIN and ZyCov-D, both developed by Indian companies namely Bharat Biotech and Zydus Cadila, have been approved to undergo Phase I and II trials this month. Additionally, the Indian industry is working on at least 6 other candidate vaccines, out of which 2 are relatively ahead.

I also wish to point out that during this pandemic, India has responded to 150 countries for timely supply of medicines demonstrating India’s strength in the health-case sector and its emergence as the “pharmacy of the world”

India is known in the world as a country with ancient historical sites of interest for tourists. In this regard, what you would like to mention about the losses of the tourism industry?

Indeed, India is known for its natural beauty as well as it rich heritage. Today, there are 38 properties in India which are inscribed in the UNESCO World Heritage List. These include 30 cultural, 7 natural and 1 mixed sites. Therefore, India offers huge opportunities for travelers from all over the world including Azerbaijan to experience the huge cultural and natural diversity of India.

The COVID-19 pandemic has inflicted a major blow to the travel and tourism industry around the globe, including India. Studies have shown that the current pandemic is the worst crises ever to hit the Indian tourism industry impacting all segments of the industry. Actual losses to the Indian tourism industry will be significant and will become clearer in the months ahead.

How has the crisis affected relations between Azerbaijan and India, especially economic and trade spheres? What plans and projects planned by the two countries have been postponed?

We have seen that there has been no significant impact on flow of goods between our two countries during this period. The normal export/import between the two countries are continuing as there is no restriction on movement of cargo. Trade and business chambers of the two countries continue to meet over video conference to discuss the business opportunities post-COVID-19.

Recently, Embassy of India coordinated online meetings of the PHD Chamber of Commerce and Industry (PHDCCI) of India and the Federation of Indian Export Organizations (FIEO), with participation of ASPROMO, ASK and Azerbaijani and Indian businessmen. An online B2B meeting of Trade Promotion Council of India (TPCI) with Azerbaijani and Indian companies was organized on 07 July. PHDCCI and Embassy of India are organizing a virtual B2B Meeting with Azerbaijani business on 29 July, and BEML Limited (a Government of India-owned company) is organizing an online meeting focusing mining and construction sectors to present their products to relevant Azerbaijani Ministries/agencies engaged in these sectors during this month.

In general, how would you characterize relations between the two countries?

The relations between the two countries are growing, especially in the sphere of our economic engagement and people to people contact. This is evident from the fact that India's bilateral trade with Azerbaijan has increased substantially from around US$ 50 million in 2005 to around US$ 1093 million in 2019. India is actively participating in the development of International North-South Transport Corridor (INSTC).

The two countries are cooperating under the framework of Inter-Governmental Commission in a wide range of areas, including trade and investment, transport, customs, energy, agriculture, food safety, health, environmental protection, tourism, culture, communication and IT, education etc. Under the Technical and Economic Cooperation (ITEC) Programme, the Government of India offers a number of fully-paid training courses to professionals from Azerbaijan every year. Last year, 22 ITEC slots are allotted to Azerbaijan.

India also provides one scholar slot every year to Azerbaijani students under the General Scholarship Scheme of the Indian Council of Cultural Relations (ICCR). Due to the restrictions on international travel, ITEC courses could not be started this year. However, Institutes in India are conducting short courses on healthcare on virtual platform. Indian cinema continues to have a large following. Indian music and dance groups sponsored by the Indian Council of Cultural relations (ICCR) regularly participate in music and dance festivals in Azerbaijan. Yoga is immensely popular in Azerbaijan and the International Day of Yoga (IDY) on 21 June is attended by several Yoga practitioners and enthusiasts from Azerbaijan with much enthusiasm. Due to the requirement of social distancing in the wake of the pandemic, events related to IDY were organized online this year. The spike in tourists arrival from India shows that Azerbaijan has become one of the best tourist destinations for Indian tourists. Over 65,000 tourists from India visited Azerbaijan in 2019.

Were there high -level contacts between Azerbaijan and India during the pandemic?

As a founding member of Non-Aligned Movement (NAM), India has been actively participating in all NAM-related activities. Prime Minister of India, Mr. Narendra Modi, participated in the Online NAM Summit of NAM Contact Group chaired by His Excellency Mr. Ilham Aliyev, President of Azerbaijan as the current Chair NAM on 04 May focused on the fight against Coronavirus pandemic. Similarly, Health Minister of India, Dr. Harsh Vardhan, participated in the meeting of the Health Ministers of the NAM Contact Group in response to COVID-19 held on 20 May through video conference.

What are the post-pandemic plans?

We believe that we should turn the Coronavirus crisis into an opportunity. The disruption caused by pandemic COVID-19 could provide an opportunity for us to diversify our overall engagement particularly our economic engagement with Azerbaijan and also open up long term opportunities for us to increase our market share in the items already exported. The Business Chambers and businessmen of the two countries with active coordination of the Embassy of India are closely monitoring the situation to identify the potential sectors where we can enhance the trade and we hope to see tremendous growth in the trade between the countries in the coming months. As mentioned above, Trade Chambers of India have already conducted three online meetings with Azerbaijani Trade Chambers and businessmen last months and two such online interactions are planned to hold in the coming weeks.

Mr. Ambassador, as you know, Azerbaijan is one of the important participants in the North-South International Transport Corridor. In this sense, how do you assess the importance of this corridor in trade and economic relations between the two countries?

As one of the founding members of the International North-South Transport Corridor (INSTC), India attaches high importance to the INSTC to improve connectivity and increase trade with the Eurasian region, including Azerbaijan. With full operationalization of the INSTC, it is hoped that the time taken and cost involved for cargo movement from India to Russia will be significantly reduced. It is estimated that the INSTC route from Mumbai to Moscow via Baku through Bandar Abbas or Chabahar ports in Iran would be significantly more cost effective and 40 percent shorter than the current sea route. Thus, INSTC will ensure better connectivity between India and Azerbaijan and the larger Eurasian region, which will facilitate India's trade and economic engagement with Eurasia and Europe.

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