Bilateral Meeting between Ministers of Foreign Affairs Guatemala - India

Foreign Minister Gert Rosenthal held a meeting today with Mr. Anand Sharma, Minister of State for Foreign Affairs of India. who is in Guatemala in an official three-days visit. Minister Sharma’s delegation was integrated by Joint Secretary, R. Viswanathan, his Private Secretary, Mridul Kumar and Mr. Rinzing Wangdi, non resident Ambassador of India to Guatemala. The Honorary Consul of India in Guatemala, Mrs. Verena Rasch, was also present in the meeting.

During the meeting the bilateral relations between both countries were evaluated and Mr Sharma pointed out that this is the first visit of a Minister of India to Guatemala, which demonstrates their interest in consolidating and improving the bilateral relation (Minister Jorge Briz visited India in May 2005). He added that Guatemala has been identified as a key country in the Central American context, in order to strengthen the presence of India in the region and to explore new opportunities for investment and cooperation. 

Minister Sharma announced the decision of the government of India to give a 10 million dollar line of credit for development projects in Guatemala. He also conveyed India’s decision to increase from seven to fifteen the number of annual ITEC (Indian Technological and Economic Cooperation) scholarships for Guatemalan nationals. Minister Sharma also offered training for Guatemalan diplomats in Indian Foreign Service Institute.

Minister Sharma expressed the interest of India in petroleum upstream and downstream sectors and in railways.

Minister Rosenthal acknowledged the importance of the relations with India and expressed the intention to consolidate the traditional bonds of friendship and cooperation through the concentrated efforts of both countries. Guatemala is aware of the increasing transcendental role that India is playing in the international arena. In that sense, both parties agreed on the fact that bilateral relations could be much fruitful in the future on the political, economical and commercial aspects, and that there is possibility to increase the opportunities that India offers in the area of cooperation, including development financing.

Strengthening relations with India is part of Guatemala’s proactive policy in the international sphere of expanding relations, particularly in those geographical areas where the country would need to have an improved presence.

Currently the goverment of Guatemala and India are negotiating an Agreement for the Promotion and Mutual Protection of Investment, and in September 2004 the Chamber of Commerce and Industry Guatemala-India initiated activities. On the other hand, regarding cooperation in information technology, in September 2006, a Centre of Technology was inaugurated in the Engineering Faculty of San Carlos University of Guatemala. The Government of India was responsible for the installation of the entire hardware, software and teaching material as well as the direction of the Centre, which is under the responsibility of three professors that came from India for a two year period. Once this time ends, the IT Centre will be given to the Government of Guatemala as a concession.

The possibility of technology cooperation on the production of ethanol and biodiesel was also discussed. The main objective of this cooperation is to contribute to the sustainable use of renewable resources in the hydrocarbon sector.

Besides the energetic sector, among other possible cooperation areas are in the fields of agriculture, pharmaceutical industry, information technology and services. Minister Sharma attached importance to the integration of central America in the form of SICA and expressed India’s interest to have regular dialogue and cooperation with SICA foreign Ministers.

Minister Sharma expressed the interest of India to collaborate with the Central America Bank for Economic Integration (CABEI) in the regular integration projects of the Bank.

At the end of the meeting both Ministers agreed on the urgent need to open permanent Diplomatic Missions in both countries in order to follow up the wide range of issues which were discussed today.

Also as part of his agenda, Minister Sharma had the opportunity to hold meetings with Vice President, Dr. Eduardo Stein, and with the Interior, Finance and Energy Ministers, as well as with the Commissioner for Investment and Competitiveness.