Tehran says US failed to gain Iran's trust during talks

BBC Sounds Music Radio Podcasts Hello and welcome to News Hour Live from the BBC World Service in London. I'm Rebecca Kesby. Coming up on the programme today, we've got a tribute to the legendary Indian singer Asha Bosle, who's died at the age of 92. We'll also be hearing live from Hungary, where elections are taking place today. NewsHouse Regina Videnathan is there. First though, the peace talks between delegations from the US and Iran have broken up without a deal in Pakistan, though the Pakistani authorities say they continue to be ready to facilitate any future discussions. Mohammed Galabaf, who's the speaker of the Iranian parliament and who was in Islamabad for the talks, said the US had ultimately failed to gain the trust of the Iranian delegation. But he said that the US negotiators now understood Tehran's logic and principles. We'll take a look at what that might mean in a moment. First though, the US Vice President JD Vance was leading the delegation from the White House and he had this to say to reporters just before boarding his plane home. We have been at it now for 21 hours and we've had a number of substantive discussions with the Iranians. That's the good news. The bad news is that we have not reached an agreement and I think that's bad news for Iran much more than it's bad news for the United States of America. So we go back to the United States having not come to an agreement. We've made very clear what our red lines are, what things we're willing to accommodate them on and what things we're not willing to accommodate them on. But the simple fact is that we need to see an affirmative commitment that they will not seek a nuclear weapon and they will not seek the tools that would enable them to quickly achieve a nuclear weapon. We haven't seen that yet. We hope that we will. That's JD Vance. Well as I say earlier, Mohammed Galabaf for the Iranian side posted on social media that Iran raised forward-looking initiatives during negotiations but the trust was the issue. We voiced up his post. Before the negotiations, I emphasised that we possessed the necessary goodwill and determination. However, based on the experiences of the two previous wars, we have no trust in the other side. My colleagues in the Iranian delegation, Minal 168, presented forward-looking initiatives but in the end the other side was unable, in this round of negotiations, to earn the trust of the Iranian delegation. The United States understood our logic and principles and now it is time to decide whether it can earn our trust or not. We consider power-based diplomacy as another method alongside military struggle to secure the rights of the nation of Iran and we will not for a moment cease efforts to consolidate the achievements of 40 days of national defence by Iranians. Well while in Islamabad, Mr Vance said that he was in constant contact with President Trump, who was photographed looking at a mobile phone in the hand of US Secretary of State Marco Rubio, while the pair were at a UFC fight in Miami last night. 45th and now 47th President of the United States of America, Donald J. Trump. Well the combative atmosphere in Miami last night, well let's try to unpick the language coming from both sides after this meeting in Islamabad with our Chief International correspondent Lee's Doucet, who is there and has been following the talks. Lee's first of all, it does seem as if trust on both sides was the main issue here. Not just trust in a very, an apps, a very, very, let us say very, very deep just trust on both sides, it is an issue and I think it's fair to say an issue especially for Iran and that was reflected in that post that you read out from Muhammad Bagh or Ghalibath in that the last two times, last year and in February, that Iran engaged in negotiations with the United States, both times the process was shattered by war and so they always see negotiations as a kind of Trojan horse, as a kind of subterfuge before the United States and Israel unleash another war and it's going to take a long time for Iran to get over those experiences but of course on the American side, and again that was reflected in the comments that you broadcast of US Vice President JD Vance, he made it clear it's not just a question and this President Trump repeats constantly of not allowing Iran to have a nuclear weapon, JD Vance added that it should also not seek the tools to be able to acquire a nuclear weapon and I think that is a very oblique reference to that 440 kilograms of highly enriched uranium that is now said to be deeply buried at the under rubble at the Isfahan nuclear site after the US air strikes last year in the 12 day war. So there is that chasm to overcome but equally there are major issues on the table, deeply contentious issues ranging from as we've been saying age old suspicions about the nuclear program and then the new issues and challenges and crises thrown up by this war, most of all Iran's control over the strategic waterway of the Strait of Hormuz that is sending economic shocks around the world. Yes and we've got a little bit more on the Strait of Hormuz in just a moment, I mean it's interesting Lise you were at those indirect negotiations in the days just before this war started and I wonder whether you've seen any difference in the mood or body language or language this time around. This was a completely new process, different in absolutely every single way. Start with the delegations, in those negotiations this year and last year led by President Trump's special envoy Steve Witkoff and then this year accompanied by the President's son-in-law J.D. Vance, there were no other, there were no nuclear experts, there was no other teams, there was no experienced diplomats. This time the vice president who has an official position and Iran was very clear it wanted someone who wasn't a family member or just a friend of President Trump came at the head of a 70 member delegation including experts in all fields and he sat across in the same room with Mohammed Barghar Ghalibov with a very significant politically significant and technically significant delegation from the Islamic Republic of Iran. In fact we even heard that during the negotiations another plane load of military experts arrived in the Pakistani capital Islamabad and another contrast when the last round of talks with Steve Witkoff he would discuss Iran in the morning, Ukraine in the afternoon and go back to Washington in the evening. This was a marathon session stretching over 21 hours political discussions face-to-face in the same room with Pakistani mediators, the technical teams broke off for release for detailed discussions. This was on a completely different plane but to say that the talks failed underlines a fundamental misperception. You cannot do a deal in a day. If it was a different administration in the White House perhaps it was a different kind of order in Tehran. You'd come out and you'd say that first of all you'd emphasize just how historic this process is. The first high-level talk since the 1979 Islamic Revolution and to say the talks were cordial that's what we understand. We made some progress we've heard each other let's go back and think about it and let's continue. There was none of that. Vice President JD Vance boarded his plane at sunrise just after he declared this is our best and final offer. And very briefly, Lee's that fragile ceasefire still intact we believe but a lot's on the line. What happens next briefly? Will the ceasefire be extended the shaky two weeks ceasefire? Will President Trump authorize his negotiators to continue or will he give the order to escalate militarily? The world is waiting. Very good to speak to you. Thank you so much for joining us live on the line from Islamabad. That's our chief international correspondent. Lee's do set there. Well much of the negotiation has been about the longer term issues as Lee's was saying there such as Iran's nuclear enrichment program but the really pressing concern as she mentioned not just for the United States but for the whole world economy is the strait of hormones and whether a deal can be struck to get it fully open again. One suggestion being floated in an article shared by President Trump himself actually earlier on social media is a possible counter blockade whereby the US could form a naval blockade to stop oil tankers passing through the strait but would it work and if so how? I've been speaking to the maritime security analyst Jen Parker. Yes, I think that they would have the capacity now when we're talking about a blockade a blockade is a term used in both the law of naval warfare and colloquially under the law of naval warfare they probably wouldn't conduct an actual blockade by the term and the reason I say that is under law when you conduct a blockade you have to blockade all countries going through that strait and stop everything. What the US would be looking to do is start interdicting Iranian oil tankers to apply economic pressure. That is entirely feasible and in many ways I'm surprised that they haven't done that previously. In the lead up to this ceasefire there's a lot of discussion around bombing cargo island or taking out power plans to transition from military targets to now economic targets. It makes much more sense to do this in the maritime domain where Iran is so dependent on its oil exports and in fact you know since this war has commenced six weeks ago there's been about 130 ships that have gone through the strait of four moves so it hasn't been completely closed but most of those have been Iranian and the US has allowed that to happen in fact they've lifted sanctions on Iranian oil exports. So this would be an effective way at having an economic impact on Iran without bombing infrastructure that would have a long-term impact. Right so this would be specifically targeting Iranian oil tankers rather than the Indian oil tankers the Chinese ones that we've seen going through because presumably if there was a total blockade the US military would have to what take oil tankers by force or even threaten to fire on them and what might the geopolitical consequences of that be? Under the law of naval warfare merchant vessels from belligerent countries so a country that is part of the war so Iran are actually a lawful naval target so you could destroy them that would not be recommended. The best way to do this is to interdict those tankers and hold them in the Indian Ocean with those thousands of Marines that the US has just brought into theater and that in itself would apply economic pressure significantly to Iran. So the idea then would be to put pressure on the Iranian economy by targeting the Iranian ships but of course the oil that's in those ships is going to other countries other countries that really need that oil and that are already suffering I mean we've heard from all over Asia there are problems the Philippines have had a state of emergency in place because of the lack of oil won't that be problematic for those countries and will they not support this? Most that Iranian oil is not going directly to those countries but in terms of increasing the price of oil globally yes it would do that and so that is kind of the the con of doing this but I guess Where is the Iranian oil going then? Mostly India and China. So they would be impacted if these ships were prevented from going through? Absolutely and when you think about the fact that the US reduced sanctions on Iranian oil that was obviously their concern about the amount of oil going into the market and the cost of oil because of Iran's attacks on merchant shipping in the strait of Hormuz so yes it would have an impact. Would that impact be worse than allowing this conflict to be prolonged? I think that's an open question so if it get brought Iran closer to the negotiation table applied enough leverage for them to agree to some of the positions about enriching uranium ballistic missiles program etc the US may well judge it's worth it. That's Jen Parker maritime security analyst then is more on the entire story of what's going on between the US and Iran on the BBC live page. Coming up on the program later what happened when the British rock band Deep Purple met a long time superfan in Tokyo this week? She started on keyboards then she had a whack it whack in drums and so there was a little connection to what I do there as well so drummer to drummer it was very nice I tried to show her a little trick but I bet she'd be practicing it and she was a bit lost on it but I bet she would get it she's very clever He's actually referring to the Japanese Prime Minister we'll have more on that interview later and some headlines the head of Iran's negotiating team has blamed a lack of trust for the failure of peace talks with the United States and Hungarians are voting in an election that could see an end to Viktor Orban's 16 years as Prime Minister voting is underway and will be crossing live to Hungary and Regina Vidonathan in about 15 minutes or so This is Rebecca Kesby with News Hour Live from the BBC now while that fragile ceasefire between the US and Iran does seem to be holding the propaganda war between the two has continued a pace we've mentioned before on this program the video game style social media posts put out by the White House now the BBC has managed to speak to one of those behind the pro-Iranian Lego style videos here's a taster Well here on the video we can see what looks like a Lego version of President Trump he's injured in hospital it looks as like his life is flashing before his eyes at one point he's depicted as a circus clown jumping through a fiery hoop held by what looks like a Lego version of Benjamin Netanyahu you get the picture well the company behind these videos has told the BBC that the Iranian government is one of its customers the BBC podcast top comment has been interviewing a representative from explosive media he just called himself Mr Explosive and I've been speaking to Laurie Callas who's the producer of the show it was the first time they've spoken to a major news organization on camera and prior to this they've always denied any direct connection to the Iranian government that's something that we pushed them on but when Matt our presenter had been speaking to them on Instagram they told us that they'd done some projects for the Iranian government and so we pushed them about that on air they initially denied it and then when there was a little bit of a back and forth with their translator forward slash potentially handler right minder yeah she jumped in and they clarified and they said no the Iranian government is a customer of ours and that's the first time they've said that publicly okay so slightly gray area there but it there's certainly pro-Iranian in nature why have these videos been so successful and sort of taken off they're very disparaging about the United States and particularly President Trump but there is a humor there's heavy rap music usage why are they so popular well we've spoken to a few experts about this and one of the things that they say is it's particularly successful because it allows the viewer or the audience to kind of dissociate from what they might expect from the Iranian regime so you see these lego-inspired characters which they the creators describe as kind of like a universal language and then also they do pick up on these things that are really kind of hyper current in the news and in the conversation so whether it's the epstein files and different strikes that have happened and the dand airmen I think another reason is they've been able to train this stuff using AI models created by western companies we know them that you know open AI uh anthropic all of these big companies that have given these llm backed technologies massive scope what it means is Iran which has always done propaganda now has an access to a western audience with cultural appropriate trained data on western sources that allows them to pick up on things that they think will really resonate with that audience it's really interesting I mean we've also seen quite a lot of propaganda coming from the united states as well also using sort of cartoon imagery and that was coming directly from the White House yeah absolutely the gamification of warfare and kind of diplomacy is absolutely something that the White House has done themselves from their official accounts as you say one of the things these creators claim is that they're acting defensively the Iranian creators they say we're responding to the US and others manipulating the truth manipulating the narrative and what we're doing is no different to what they're doing that's what they say they talk about hyper reality which is this concept from the french philosopher john bogeyard what they're saying is that they're creating a version of the truth that is more convincing to the audience and is more faithful to the audience even if the things they are actually depicting didn't happen that's the bbc's lori callus there and you can listen to top comment which is a new bbc podcast investigating what's big online wherever you get your bbc podcasts now the word legendary is often applied to musicians too often perhaps but no other word would do when referring to asher bosley the legendary indian singer who has died at the age of 92 in Mumbai she had a cardiac arrest she began recording songs way back in 1947 but went on to become the most recorded artist of all time with a staggering 11 000 tracks recorded in over 20 indian languages i've been speaking to brahman and s singh who's a documentary filmmaker who met her several times and i asked him first about asher's famous versatility and range is that what made her one of a kind she had a very good grounding very good training very orthodox training and then she was forever willing to experiment the kind of experimentation that she introduced the kind of risk that she was willing to take with her singing was unheard of at that point of time i think that was a very persona she lived life you know wholly like her elder elder sister who had a phenomenal repetition and she was a great she led a very proper life but asher not so she just jumped into the life did whatever she wanted and she went through troubles she went through all kinds of problems she was it was almost as if she was singing from life and i i might gut feel is that's what made her very very versatile she had a very important musical partnership with i think he was her second husband who you made a program with can you explain that for us and why that kind of helped keep her so relevant all through the different decades arne brahm and their association that you're talking about was probably one of the greatest composers ever okay and certainly one of the top most in india and she created music out of nowhere and again the same thing experimentation and very good round training and i think they were already singing for each other he was composing and she was singing and once they got close together as as partners they just experimented the craziest of tunes and all jokingly laughingly but with the musical insight musical understanding that ran deep they used to consider that call that faldukakaam which means work done in spare time but those are some of the most biding compositions that she has served she actually did collaborations with many western musicians and right up into the last couple of decades as well she did something with boy george um the british singer i mean you met her quite a few times and you would have thought that somebody so famous might actually be a bit of a a diva but it seems everybody says she was very down to earth and was all about the music she could wear a sari and cook homely food and things about the moment she had the music around her she was a different being altogether so she lived to breathe music and i think that showed in her so you know these are i called renaissance mind they are alive to anything life has to offer she could sing the most melodious song she could sing the most the trickle song she could sing the most playful song she could sing sing the most naughty songs it was amazing and that was indian documentary filmmaker brahman and sing there with his thoughts and reflections on the life and work of legendary indian singer asha bosley who has died at the age of 92 welcome back to news hour it's easter sunday for orthodox christians including of course in ukraine and russia a temporary ceasefire was called to mark the most important christian festival of the year but almost as soon as it came into effect both sides reported violations across the front line each side blaming the other for breaking that truce while our correspondent sarah reynsford is in the eastern ukrainian city of harkiv and she sent this report we're at a church on the outskirts of harkiv city and people just arriving here with easter baskets full of eggs and easter cake and sausage meat that they're bringing to be blessed by the priest here but the war has changed everything even easter this service should be taking place at midnight with a procession around the church but because of the curfew because of the war it's happening in the middle of the afternoon this year russia and ukraine have agreed an easter ceasefire until monday but expectations are really low the priest has come out of the church now and he's blessing people who've lined up with their easter baskets everyone here is laughing because he's soaking them with water and they're asking him for more easter is all about hope and optimism and that's been in pretty short supply in ukraine lately but here people are smiling they're laughing and i guess they are hoping that at least for a day they'll be spared the russian missiles and drones lorissa tells me there may well be a pause in the fighting but she's sure the russians will then hit even harder we're just driving on the ring road around harkiv city and it's now completely covered with protective netting it's like we're heading through a tunnel and this is to protect the roads and vehicles from russian drones we've just passed through a military checkpoint and we're heading to a village that was occupied in 2022 by russian forces and it's now where some ukrainian soldiers have their base the drone unit from the khartya brigade were busy testing new kit for the front line practicing sending kamikaze drones at a target the soldiers admit they're exhausted after four years of fighting but their commander georgi is also sure that this truce won't last i i gave my people order to be ready ready for an MS fire because you think that they will yep i'm sure you can hear the air raid siren in the background it's just 38 minutes into what's supposed to be this easter truce and already this ceasefire seems to have been broken that's the bbc sarah reynsford they're reporting from kharkiv a very key city in eastern ukraine there you're listening to news hour live from the bbc in london i'm rebecca kesby now it's a big day in hungry voting is underway in a general election that could see victor orban winning his fifth election in a row or could handpower to the pro european tisa party and its leader petter mudger who himself was once a senior member of mr orban's fides party and capitals across europe will be watching the results very carefully as will the kremlin and the white house here with all the details is news hours rejini vaidanaar thin rejini where do we find you today and how would you describe the mood there good afternoon from hungary rebecca well it's a warm and sunny day here in the capital buda pester we're actually outside a polling station in the central part of the city we're in the buda rather than the pester half and in the time that we've been here we've seen a steady trickle of people voting at the large montessori school just across the road i can see about four or five people going in just now as i'm speaking to you it's become the polling station for the day for this particular area but we are hearing that there's already been a record turnout in these elections by one p.m here in hungary more than 54 percent of the electorate cast their vote this is being seen as one of the most consequential elections europe's ever seen well hangry has a population of less than 10 million people it's a country that is small in size but big in clout still attached to lamphouse near where i'm sitting there are posters with the faces of the two main candidates the incumbent prime minister the far right populist victor orban of the fidesz party and his challenger peter mad jar from the tisza party well all bands hoping to hold on to power after 16 years but he does face a strong challenge from 45-year-old mad jar what's a member of all bands fidesz group well he started leading tisza only two years ago opinion polls at the moment suggest that mad jar has the edge i've been gauging the views of voters in budapest there are thousands and thousands of people who have gathered here at hero square in budapest some of them clambering along the colonnades of this hundred year old landmark to get sight of the stage here this is thought to be the largest ever concert in hungary's history it's all about getting people to turn out for the elections here but it's also all about getting the country's prime minister victor orban out dirty fidesz they chart a reference to fidesz the party of victor orban the prime minister who's been in power for 16 years people here say they're fed up with him and ready for a change as we weave through the huge crowds we spot a man holding a huge flag with a cartoon skull from the one piece comics the straw hats jolly roger it's become a symbol of gen z resistance movements around the world my name is iron and i'm 27 years old and when i couldn't help notice that you're carrying the flag of one piece what's the symbolism of you using that for me it symbolizes my generation and just the whole revolution in hungary victor orban's been your prime minister for most of your lifetime why don't you want to vote for him i feel like i want to be part of europe and not i don't want to be part of an autocratic regime i don't want to live in a country that belongs to russia not far from arwin we meet alessandra who came here from ukraine three years after russia's invasion not just to flee the conflict but because she'd always wanted to live in hungary orban just made that people hate each other ukrainians hate hongarians and hongarians hate ukrainians actually i tried not to tell anyone that i'm from ukraine victor orban's fidesz party wants to make ukraine a key issue in this election he doesn't think hungary should be supporting ukraine's war efforts and one thing that's striking as we've been walking around budapest is just how many posters in this campaign feature the image of the ukrainian president vladimir zolensky and vladimir zolensky isn't the only foreign leader featuring in this campaign the fact that so many foreign actors whether they're transnational organizations like the bureaucrats in brussels or whether it's foreign governments are literally threatening the hungarian people vote this way or we're going to exact our revenge on you that should make you very angry we've come to the college campus where jd van spoke earlier this week and there's a cafe here named after roger scrutin he's the british conservative philosopher who in the past victor orban says influenced him and so as well as selling coffees and pastries they've got t-shirts on sale with the quote conservatism is more an instinct than an idea are you going to vote yeah yeah yeah who for undecided yes i think i i will have to go through my mind for the next 24 hours till the election indeed begins because there are many aspects which are pro also which are contra so i think economically data is one major thing which influences my opinion but yeah it's a it's a difficult question because my heart says the one thing but my brain says the other thing and it's the large number of undecided voters this time round which make the outcome of this election so uncertain we are in the shadows of buda castle here in buda pest and there are hundreds of people here as far as the eye can see many of them waving hungarian flags as they gather at this rally for hungary's prime minister victor orban and he's fighting for his political life my name is zhombot it's a really hungarian name as you can imagine how old are you i'm 21 21 so this is your first vote exactly this is my first vote last time i missed it by by a month so victor orban has essentially been in power through most of your life yeah um why are you going to vote for him what i think is that it's important to maintain relationships with with the west with the east whether it's put in whether it's trump whether it's cg ping i think it's really important for us to maintain good diplomatic relations with anyone in the world even if that causes problems because of russia's invasion of ukraine i think i think yeah we should maintain still relationships were you pleased that jd vanc was here yes i was very pleased i think it's as well it shows how important hungary is actually today well a few seconds ago rebecca i saw a man leave the polling station opposite carrying what looked like a heavy box of ballots ready to be counted later so democracy in action there well as we heard in that report this election is as much about global relationships as it is about domestic hungarian politics hanging over the door of the school that's turned into a polling station for the day i can see a hungarian flag alongside an e-u flag and this race could define the future direction of how those two interact well i'm joined now by evan gniotch a journalist from the associated press based here in budapest um ivan first of all let's talk about this turnout we're hearing record numbers what more do we know hi thank you so much for having me it is a record turnout by far we've never seen this many people show up this early at the one so they tally the the tally participation at every two hours and at one p.m. it was 54.1 percent which is four million votes that is huge that is 14 percent more than it was four years ago at the same time so that clearly sees that clearly shows just how how crucial these elections are and it also tells us a lot about how how the pendulum might swing because over the past two elections we've seen that orban is capable of mobilizing roughly around three million people at a peak of his powers now we see that he's not at the peak of his powers anymore clearly by the emergence of peter mudger on the scene but we also know that it might go well beyond six million people who actually go to vote so if you do the maths it might not look good for orban with such high participation that's interesting are we getting any sense of where people are turning out the most it's pretty it's a pretty high turnout across the country but especially in cities even in the countryside and even smaller cities and what generally used to be the case is budapest is very much an opposition place it's very or anti-orban place it has always been larger cities around the country cities of a few hundred thousand tend to lean opposition but not sure and anything on anything below that anything in the tens of thousands is staunchly fetus now we're seeing that participation in those sounds is very high and we saw that peter mudger is capable of holding massive rallies in those places and that could be very very costly for orban and fetus yeah it's interesting when we were at that rally for mega on friday evening and it was striking just how many people we saw from all walks of life but particularly young people what do you think the appeal of peta madja is i mean he was only leading tisa two years ago i mean it's a remarkable rise isn't it it is and young people turning out really tells you how much the country has changed under orban it's been 16 years i mean for the majority of my life it was victor orban leading the country and there's three generations of first time voters who don't really have any recollection of life before orban and each year that's like each cohort of young people is like a hundred thousand people that's a lot of people going to the ports for the first time and young people are rebellious young people always defy the authority and young people love europe it's all the opportunities they they all go to university their friends go to university in in amsterdam in berlin or they used to go to the uk a lot and it this never to it's never to muskow it's not really to china and that kind of shows where where young people's eyes are set but it's too early to rule victor orban out he's run this country for 16 years he still has a lot of support he also has friends in the right places because of course earlier this week jd vance was here how much do you think endorsements like that could change the dial i'm very skeptical about how much endorsements count in this race particularly because this is a referendum on orban's tenure in government it's about whether you want to leave live in a country that's been like this for 16 years and continue doing this or have a fresh start it's about it's about cost of living it's about corruption inside the country it's about it's about where you think this country should be headed it's not a single politician from abroad however important and powerful it's really your lived experience that's going to decide it if you want change or not it's not really whether jd vance says it or not yeah interesting and of course ukraine just very briefly it's been something that certainly victor orban has wanted to put front and center we've seen so many posters across the city of vladimir zolensky and he's been a thorn in the e u side when it comes to ukraine hasn't he really has and it's really important to mention that everyone's a stakeholder at this election pretty much every major force in the world so it's not at all unsurprising it's not at all surprising to see so much attention in budapest right now and yeah in terms of ukraine victor orban is trying to frame this as an existential threat he's trying to take the attention away from madjah because he looks unstoppable he looks really powerful at the moment so orban wants to talk about everything else he wants to talk about ukraine not really about madjah who's looking powerful at the moment but as you said you can never rule victor orban out okay thank you very much for sharing your thoughts on what might unfold later that's evan knyorch a journalist based here in budapest regeany thanks so much for that do you have any idea when we might get the results everyone's so keen to to be watching it yeah so the polls close at seven p.m local time here in hungary depending on how overwhelming the result might go we are expecting we could get results a couple of hours after that and if it is a landslide either then it might be quite apparent which way this goes if it's close it might take longer regeany vaidanaathan watching it for is in hungry this is rebecca kesby with news hour live from the bbc world service now on friday japan's prime minister sanay takahichi had the opportunity to meet some very important visiting foreign dignitaries here's the moment oh can just hear the prime minister there saying you are my god she's speaking to band members of deep purple because the band is on tour in japan at the moment and the prime minister is one of their biggest fans we just heard her presenting deep purple's drummer ian pace with a set of signed drumsticks as a schoolgirl the prime minister played keyboards apparently in a deep purple tribute band well my colleague julian waraker has been speaking to ian pace and the band's lead singer ian gillian and he started by asking ian pace what the prime minister had told them about her love for deep purple and rock music generally she started on keyboards but she then she had a whack it whacking drums and so there was a little connection to what i do there as well so drummer to drummer it was very nice to just chat to her a little while although it was all through interpreters you as you'd imagine yes you have to remember lots of world leaders now of a certain age and they sort of grew up with what we started doing those years ago for us it's not that unusual it is nice when it happens so were you able to pass on some drumming tips i tried to show her a little trick but i bet she'd be practicing it and she was a bit lost on it but i bet she would get it she's a very clever woman a very very smart lady and she knew a long time ago there's no future in drumming isn't that right no food yes she took a different career route ian gillian when you knew that you were going to meet her i mean what was the conversation were you nervous in anticipation of that well we've been lucky to meet an awful lot of leaders of various countries over the years and these occasions are necessarily quite formal it was lighthearted to a certain degree but there's half an hour to do the photo opportunity and to pay our mutual respect it was actually very nice she's very warm personality and we had obviously a mutual interest in music so it was very present indeed yeah i'm interested in what you say because you know you're right it's a formal occasion you're meeting a world leader and you always have to have that in your mind even though clearly the sort of the essence of the meeting is a very friendly one ian gillian apparently she is a big fan of the album machine head and we're going to hear a little bit of the hit smoke on the water from that album have a listen and what did she tell you about her love of that album in particular it was that time in her life when she was discovering music as a young person and she's not alone that record and that time music connected very very strongly with with the youth around the world and occasionally you're lucky enough to find a piece of music which jumps off an album and people take to their heart and she was one of those people who did take it to her heart and and subsequently started looking into other stuff that we'd done so you know sometimes you need something just kickstart somebody's interest and i think that album and particularly that song probably did that for her that's interesting so that was her route into much more of your music yeah everybody starts somewhere indeed you've been on stage in uh was it yesterday in japan i lose track because you're sort of several hours away ahead of us but you've you've been on stage in the last 24 hours in japan yeah yeah it's tokyo at the uh the feign buddhikan venue uh we played many times in the past it's a little bit like the albert hall in its sort of aura especially the love of the japanese people for that venue audio wise they're not the neither one of them are the best places in the world they weren't built to do what we asked them to do but they're they're getting better they're not designed as music venues so you do have a a few little obstacles to try and get over to do the best job job possible but it's great to be there because it means so much to the local population it's it's a very very special place for them and just on that i mean ian gilland the size of your japanese fan base what sort of scale are we talking about here well it crosses the generations now i mean it's quite amazing we uh about 20 years ago i think we we finished off a what was it an oasis tour when they collapsed and broke up and they asked us to pick up a couple of oasis gigs in italy i think we were just down the road in switzerland i noticed that their audience and they're a generation younger than us but their audience was a generation older and they announced and it all picked off the european audience is now averages between 18 and 25 it's but don't tell anyone it's all right nobody's listening rest assured um just a final one i mean you hinted at this a moment ago here you have one world leader wanting to meet you wanting to say how much she loves your music how many others over the years have you encountered and and had conversations with about what you do i remember going to uh the private residence of the russian president demitri medvedev during his incombatcy when hudin was taking a sabbatical so the constitution could be rearranged and uh it was a very interesting evening and he he he told me that uh he learned his english from childhood time one of our records in the 70s though english rock bands music was forbidden in the soviet union i personally know two people one in the old east germany leipzig and one in poland who were imprisoned for two years for being caught in possession of a deep purple record personally i thought they should have got a bit longer but it was uh yeah they had a music class in school on fridays and they were they bought deep purple in rock and the school teacher sat them down and said well you can listen to this you can take notes you can criticize it you can do whatever you like but you are forbidden to enjoy it and so that was the attitude but he learned his first english words from there and also from the lyrics of the song he realized that there were people outside the soviet union kids of his age that were just like him and uh it made a big difference and i think when uh people have a common interest of some kind whether it's sport or i do i speak every now and again for the institute for cultural diplomacy and uh whether it's ballet or theater or rock music or sport or whatever it might be it's very helpful but there's a common interest um that bridges the gap between um diverse cultures that was deep purples lead singer ian gillen there and also uh band member ian pace spreading rock diplomacy across the globe uh they were both speaking to the bbc's julian warakuh there after meeting japan's prime minister who was in a deep purple tribute band as a youth that's it for this edition of news hour from me and the whole team here in london thanks for joining us