International Cooperation

As India’s Petroleum Minister Baalu had the honour of participating as the Chief Guest at the Second Gas Summit Conference held in Paris in November, 1997 and delivering the Key Note Address. In his address, he stressed the need for dedicated R&D in areas such as development of deep water, off-shore resources mastering deep sea pipelines technology and conversion of Natural Gas into Liquids for conventional transportation and utilization as substitutes of liquid hydrocarbon in markets.

Around the same time, T.R. Baalu was offered the privilege of participating in the World Economic Forum Meet held at Doha, Qatar as the representative of then Prime Minister I.K. Gujral and to deliver the Key Note address. The Prime Minister chose him to perform this prestigious role on his behalf though he was neither the External Affairs Minister nor in-change of Finance portfolio. This was purely on account of the personal confidence enjoyed by him from the PM of the country. However, his trip to Doha had to be cancelled in the wake of a helicopter crash in Assam in which the then Minister of State for Defence, N.V.N. Somu was killed.