MEA Weekly Media Briefing: Balen Shah on India | Pakistan-EU Joint Statement | Bangladesh | NBT

Added: 2026-06-03

[00:00:00]today and thereafter we can open the floor for questions.

[00:00:03]Uh first, this is the announcement about the visit of the acting president of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela.

[00:00:12]Her Excellency, Miss Delcy Rodriguez, acting president of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela, who was earlier scheduled to visit India to participate in the International Big Cats Alliance Summit on 1st June, uh which has been deferred, as you know, will pay a working visit to India from 3rd of June to 7th of June.

[00:00:39]She will be accompanied by several ministers, including the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Economy and Finance, Science and Technology, Communication and Information, and Transportation.

[00:00:51]Uh some of you would know that uh Acting President Rodriguez has visited India several times in the past uh in her capacity as the Foreign Minister of Venezuela, as also in her capacity as the Vice President of Venezuela. She came here as Foreign Minister in 2015 and thereafter as Vice President in 2019, 2023, 2024, and 2025. This will be her sixth visit to India. So, she has had long association with us.

[00:01:21]Uh during the visit, President Rodriguez, Acting President, sorry, Rodriguez, will hold bilateral discussions with Prime Minister. Uh discuss the discussions will involve the full spectrum of India-Venezuela relations and inva- and explore avenues for further cooperation in the areas of energy, trade, investment, pharmaceuticals, healthcare, transportation, and renewable energy. As part of the program, they will be visiting several sites.

[00:01:52]India, as you know, India is an important partner of Venezuela in the areas of energy and investment.

[00:01:59]Indian public sector undertakings have made significant investment in Venezuela in the energy sector and they are keen to explore more opportunities to further enhance their presence. Uh we will be issuing a press release so that you get fuller update of what is there in our program during the visit but I thought I'll first give you announce the visit for all of you to report.

[00:02:29]With that I open the floor for questions. We can start.

[00:02:33]We'll go with Uma first.

[00:02:37]>> Uma Shankar Singh, independent journalist.

[00:02:56]>> That Siddhant, sorry.

[00:02:58]>> Hi sir, Siddhant from Beyond. Sir, we saw the EU's top diplomat visiting Islamabad and there was a joint statement that referred to Kashmir as well. With the Pakistani side briefed on Kashmir to the EU side, EU side briefed on the situation in Ukraine. How does Indian side sees that?

[00:03:19]>> Akhilesh Keshav >> Thank you, spokesperson. Keshav Padmanabhan from The Print.

[00:03:43]Ahead of the visit of the acting president of Venezuela, there is there remains about I think little over 500 million dollars that has to be paid as dividends by Venezuela to an Indian public sector undertaking specifically ONGC with age I think.

[00:04:01]Will this be will this come up during the discussions and what is India's position with regards to this significant sum owed to an Indian PSU?

[00:04:11]>> Mhm.

[00:04:12]Ayushi.

[00:04:16]>> So this is Ayushi Agarwal from ANI. On the the Pakistan EU joint statement has India conveyed its concern to the European Union regarding the language used in the EU Pakistan strategic dialogue statement and also on Nepal the Prime Minister has reportedly in suggested involving countries like UK and China in discussions related to the India Nepal border issue.

[00:04:39]What is India's response to that?

[00:04:42]>> So Ayushi Uma Shankar and Akhilesh I will club these questions and answer them both in Hindi and English for you.

[00:05:48]See Nepal clearly.

[00:05:50]as well. Yeah, your your question was similar. We have seen the remarks of Prime Minister of Nepal concerning India-Nepal boundary as well as the subsequent statement made by the Nepali Foreign Office on this matter.

[00:06:08]While close to 98% of India-Nepal boundary has been demarcated, there are some unresolved segments. The shifting of the course of Gandak River has resulted in this situation.

[00:06:21]In addition, there are cases of cross-border occupation and encroachment of no-man's-land in demarcated segments of the boundary, which are currently being mapped jointly. We have established bilateral mechanisms to deal with all aspects of boundary matters. It should be clear to all concerned that there is no role for any third parties in a bilateral matter between India and Nepal.

[00:06:53]Okay, sure.

[00:07:16]or your contacts >> Kishore and Siddhant to your question regarding the reference to Jammu and Kashmir.

[00:08:14]We have would like to say that we categorically categorically reject such unwarranted references in the joint press communique on matters internal to India. The union territories of Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh are integral and in eligible parts of India. Those who have no locus in standi on such matters should desist from making any comment on them.

[00:08:43]Kishore regarding your question, we have our companies oil PSUs who made investments in the energy sector in Venezuela. And during this visit, you know, as you know, Venezuela is an important energy partner for us.

[00:08:57]There'll be issues of regarding energy security, regarding our public sector undertakings, those issues and several other trade and investment related issues. And other parts of you know, this relationship we have several elements to it. They health care cooperation, pharma cooperation and as also, you know, there are several areas of business engagement that are proposed between the two sides. So, all these issues will be discussed along with the issue that you mentioned.

[00:09:29]So, we go to the next one.

[00:09:35]Yashi.

[00:09:38]>> This is Yashi from >> Business India. Uh I have a question on Bangladesh. A Bangladesh National Party spokesperson has said that uh Bangladesh's relation with India hinges on a new uh Ganges water sharing treaty because the old one is coming to an end in December.

[00:09:56]Uh what is MEA's comment on that?

[00:10:03]>> Pranay?

[00:10:06]>> Sir, Pranay Pathak from India Today Network. There are reports that around 30 uh Indian truck drivers are being deported from the United States. And uh do we have confirmation about this? How many uh you know, drivers are there? And uh they had belonged to which state?

[00:10:20]Besides that, uh how many identity verification documents have been sent by the US authorities for Government of India to verify for the deportation process? If you can give us a figure and estimate about that.

[00:10:37]>> Yeah.

[00:10:42]>> Hello, good evening, sir. This is Megha from NewsX. And my question about, you know, these back-to-back visits that have been scheduled. First, the Trade Secretary of United Kingdom and then the Foreign Secretary of United Kingdom.

[00:10:53]What is the significance of these two visits? And of course, the operationalization of the free trade agreement between both countries. Is this the reason the Foreign Secretary has come to India?

[00:11:08]>> Jessica?

[00:11:11]>> Hi. So, this is Jessica for uh Doordarshan. How does India view the recent remarks made by Secretary of War Pete Hegseth that the US and Pakistan are developing true friendship?

[00:11:26]>> Please.

[00:11:30]>> Uh hi, sir. Uh this is Kata from Japanese news agency, Jiji Press.

[00:11:35]Uh recently, US government released some UAP files.

[00:11:41]Um uh including UFO.

[00:11:47]So, uh have India and US officials uh ever exchanged views on UAP matter?

[00:11:55]>> Sorry, on?

[00:11:56]>> On UAP, this matter. UAP matter.

[00:11:59]>> UAP >> matter?

[00:12:02]Okay.

[00:12:03]>> And uh So, one more question. Is there any specialized uh UAP in the Indian government?

[00:12:15]>> UFO, you mean to say?

[00:12:16]>> Yeah, including UFO.

[00:12:21]>> So, uh issue first to your question. We, as you know, that we have several rivers, in fact, 54 rivers that are shared between India and Bangladesh.

[00:12:31]And we have a joint rivers commission, uh structured bilateral mechanism uh to deal with issues pertaining to all the rivers that we share between India and Bangladesh. And uh the question that you asked, we will also be looking at these issues as part of uh our structured bilateral collaboration that we have on the issue of water, on the issue of rivers.

[00:12:57]Uh Pranay, on your question, uh we I we also seen some reports about deportation. But what I can tell you is that uh India does not in any manner support illegal immigration.

[00:13:10]We, in fact, cooperate with the United States as and when there are there are cases of deportation which are referred to us, we check the nationality, and once the nationality of those people are verified, we thereafter we uh they are deported, and we receive our nationals.

[00:13:29]Uh, as far as the exact number of cases that have been referred to us by the United States, I don't have an update for uh, for you for to share with you at this point, but surely I will come back to you. But, immigration matters, mobility matters, this is an ongoing collaboration, cooperation between the United States and India. And we have been having people being deported from the United States to India uh, once their nationality has been verified by us.

[00:13:58]Uh, Mega um, Mega on the visit of the the Foreign Minister of UK, uh, this visit, I understand is to happen. As to when it will happen, we'll keep you informed. With the United Kingdom, it's not just about FTA, but we have a large gamut of issues that we deal with them. Economic cooperation, security cooperation, defense cooperation, and several other areas of collaboration. So, when a Foreign Secretary or the Foreign Minister of UK will be here, we will discuss all these issues with them, as also including the issue of free trade agreement and how we can scale up our trade and investment ties.

[00:14:35]>> Trade Secretary >> So, Trade Secretary is here in India. He is He will I'm sure Ministry of Commerce will give you a read out from that meeting to you. But, we remain confident that we continue to will scale up our trade and investment ties with the United Kingdom, as also with other partners across the world.

[00:15:01]Jessica, your question regarding the comments made, we hope our friends and partners would impress on the country to credibly and irrevocably irrevocably abjure cross-border terrorism.

[00:15:19]Keta, your question regarding UFO, this is new matter that I heard. So, I'll have to check, you know, exactly what lies, what is the context, what is there behind it.

[00:15:32]As far as I mean, we have a vibrant space program that you know, we have Indian Space Research Organization is a very well-known entity with international reputation. And we have close collaboration between ISRO and several internationally renowned agencies including with Japan, we have you know, space cooperation and very strong technological cooperation. But more on the details, I'll come back to you as to where we are or what lies behind this particular question of yours.

[00:16:03]Hello.

[00:16:06]>> So, Kalu Bhattacharjee from The Hindu.

[00:16:07]So, my question is regarding Nepal ruling party chief's visit to Delhi. Um what is the context of this visit if you could please explain? So, the kind of protocol that he received uh on arriving at the airport yesterday. Uh he's after all just the head of the ruling party, he's not really head of the government.

[00:16:26]Why is India entertaining him at the highest political level? I understand a meeting with the External Affairs Minister is right now going on. Um because uh from the Nepalese side, it's appearing um uh slightly as if out of sync.

[00:16:40]>> Okay.

[00:16:41]>> Uh so, if you could just explain, you know, what is the reason that you are hosting him here? Especially because I understand the Foreign Secretary was expected to visit Nepal last month and he couldn't visit because as we understand, the Prime Minister didn't give him a you know, appointment for meeting.

[00:16:56]So, therefore, uh with that permission.

[00:17:01]>> I'm Smita Sharma.

[00:17:02]Uh the situation in Lebanon continues to be extremely worrisome. The kind of flattening of buildings while Israel says that it's targeting Hezbollah, uh there's been severe deaths, casualties happening there and which has also led to in fact, Iran now saying that it is suspending the ongoing talks with the United States. How does India view this, keeping in mind that we also have UN peacekeepers in Lebanon and in the region as well? How do you look at the Israeli military offensive?

[00:17:34]>> Mhm.

[00:17:35]Niraj.

[00:18:07]>> So, Dhirendra Maheshwari from Sputnik.

[00:18:08]>> Dhirendra.

[00:18:09]>> Sir, would it be possible to get some details about India's participation at the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum kicking off tomorrow, as to who is leading the Indian delegation, and what would be the priority areas, you know, in terms of joint investments, India-Russia collaboration?

[00:18:25]Thank you.

[00:18:28]>> Okay.

[00:18:29]So, Kalol, first to your question.

[00:18:31]The chairman of the Rastriya Swatantra Party of Nepal, uh Shri Rabi Lamichhane, he is visiting India.

[00:18:40]Uh he was This is visit is part of the contacts that are there between the two countries, between the two countries, uh I mean, between the political parties of the two countries. Uh yes, he was received at the airport. I saw some visuals of it. But, he was received by the people who invited him. So, you know, the parties the party invited him, and he was received by them. He will be having uh uh high-level meetings here, and several other meetings. And these are part and parcel of you know, these contacts are equally important, because with Nepal, uh we have multifaceted partnership. We have government-to-government relations.

[00:19:16]We have people-to-people relations. We have relations between cultural ambassadors of this country and cultural ambassadors of Nepal. So, you know, it is a very wide expanse of multifaceted partnership that we share and we value these contacts in further strengthening and deepening our friendly partnership with Nepal.

[00:19:38]Smita, on your question we have been closely following the developments in West Asia region and you know, our point right from the very beginning has been the dialogue and diplomacy is the way forward for forward for achieving an early return of peace and stability and we continue to emphasize this point with all our interlocutors.

[00:20:01]Bangladesh gets out mechanisms you have on car Yes, structured bilateral mechanisms.

[00:20:20]I never let them know me.

[00:20:23]Uh Seema somebody that Moodle per budget on a clay don't they show the beach may just structure mechanism of ski meeting on a key someone I have a key.

[00:20:33]Or Just a key up near the tiger is key.

[00:20:38]Did they take a gay guy very positive ski junk are in a leaking just give me a little bit junk are you I give me a score up to the disco.

[00:20:49]I will put that on the camera.

[00:20:52]Dharia regarding your question India's participation in St. Petersburg this forum that is happening. I don't have an exact information for you at this point in time but we do value our participation in the forum.

[00:21:10]With Russia, you know, we have very strong ties including in several areas economic and trade being one of them, and these ties have been expanding in recent times. Uh and we look forward to a meaningful participation as to exactly who's leading our delegation, I will come back to you on that matter.

[00:21:29]So, uh with that, ladies and gentlemen, if we don't have further questions, thank you very much for your participation.