honour of the Prime Minister of the Republic of India Manmohan Singh, on the
occasion of the official dinner, Presidential Guest House, Pretoria
2 October 2006
Your Excellency, Dr Manmohan Singh, Prime Minister of the Republic of India
and Mrs Kaur
Our Deputy President
Your Excellencies, Ministers and Deputy Ministers
Your Excellencies, Ambassadors, High Commissioners and Members of the
Diplomatic Corps
Corporate leaders of India and South Africa
Distinguished guests,
Ladies and gentlemen:
We are delighted that you, Your Excellency, your wife and your delegation
have honoured us with this historic visit. On behalf of the people and
government of South Africa, I am privileged once more to convey a warm welcome
to you and all our dear Indian friends.
Your Excellency, we are indeed very happy that your official visit today
coincides with an important day in the calendar of the Indian nation. We are
therefore privileged to share with you the celebration of the 137th birthday of
that incomparable human being, Mahatma Gandhi, as well as the Dusharah Festival
which is celebrated to mark the victory of God Rama over Ravana, symbolising
the triumph of good over evil.
I would like to take this opportunity to wish you, Your Excellency, your
delegation, the people of India as well as all Hindus, here in South Africa and
all over the world, the very best on this important day.
Your Excellency, although this is your very first visit to our shores, we
know that throughout your life, as is the case with many Indians, you have had
a very intimate relationship with the people of this country, as well as our
struggle against the repugnant system of apartheid.
Indeed, our links have been forged through our common struggle against
colonialism and apartheid, which were given concrete expression by our common
hero, Mahatma Gandhi, as well as many South African Indians who make us proud
by having unshakable roots in both South Africa and India and by being among
the most patriotic of our people.
Yesterday we had the opportunity of reliving some of the great feats that
have immortalised Mahatma Gandhi, a rare human being whose phenomenal courage,
humility and resolute spirit straddled the Indian Ocean and became an
unbreakable thread that wove our two countries together.
It is quite fitting, therefore, that we should be meeting here in South
Africa today, on Mahatma Gandhi's birthday. Your Excellency, permit me also to
wish you a belated Happy Birthday, which you celebrated last week.
South Africa will always honour India as one of the most consistent and
principled supporters of our struggle for liberation. It was India, even as she
was barely independent and free herself, that utilised every conceivable
opportunity to draw international attention to the evils of oppression and
racial injustice, occupying an honoured place within the world family of
nations as a strong voice of morality, national liberation, social justice and
human dignity.
Your Excellency, we are indeed very happy that our bilateral relations are
becoming stronger every day. Although our bilateral trade has grown
significantly since our freedom in 1994, I believe, Your Excellency, that the
current trade figures do not reflect the full potential of existing commercial
opportunities that could still considerably boost our bilateral trade.
I am pleased that we have agreed that much more needs to be done to exploit
these opportunities to expand both trade between, and investment in each
other's economies. We are very pleased that the India-South Africa CEO Forum
was established, confident that this vital institution, which also met during
the Prime Minister's visit, will make an enormous contribution to help our
countries achieve our shared economic objectives.
As you are aware, Your Excellency, two of the important foundations for our
bilateral relations are the historic 1997 Red Fort Declaration on Strategic
Partnership between South Africa and India and the Delhi Declaration of
2003.
We are proud that this bilateral partnership is based on shared values, a
strong and common commitment to shared prosperity, social justice and
co-operation for a global order that is marked by peace, security and equity.
As Strategic Partners and as we should, our countries have been engaging each
other on the political, economic, educational, cultural, social and defence
areas, as well as through people-to-people contact.
In reflecting on our strategic partnership and our engagement, it is clear
that we have made considerable progress but we need to do more, further to
strengthen this partnership. This conviction motivated us to adopt the Tshwane
Declaration we signed today, which commits us to develop our bilateral
partnership to an even higher strategic level.
Today, the institutional relationship between our two countries is both rich
and diverse, giving us the possibility significantly to increase our mutually
beneficial co-operation across a broad front of activities. To date, our two
countries have signed about thirty agreements and Memoranda of
Understanding.
But, Your Excellency, as we have agreed, these agreements are not an end in
themselves. We have therefore agreed to do everything possible to give
substance to the content of these agreements and speedily implement them to the
mutual betterment of our peoples. Consistent with the idiom of Mahatma Gandhi,
we reiterate today: "The difference between what we do and what we could do
would suffice to solve most of the world's problems."
Your Excellency, I would like to take this opportunity to thank you most
sincerely for the manner in which, during the visit to our country, you have
inspired all of us to do the things we must do practically to strengthen our
relations across the board.
In this regard, Your Excellency, I would like to thank you, your government
and the sister people of India for engaging in practical programmes to help us
address one of the biggest challenges facing our country. This is in the area
of human resource development under the Indian Technical and Economic
Co-operation Programme (ITEC); through the scholarship schemes offered by the
Indian Council for Cultural Relations (ICCR) and through other various
bilateral mechanisms, thus contributing to skills development and capacity
building in South Africa.
Your Excellency, both India and South Africa share the common understanding
that global economic relations continue to be characterised by huge
inequalities, with large sections of the world yet to reap the benefits of
globalisation. In this context, the sad suspension of the Doha Development
Round negotiations has been a severe disappointment, and we need to do all we
can to overcome this grave setback, which dates back to the unfinished business
of the Uruguay Round.
We are proud that together with Brazil we have formed a trilateral
partnership India-Brazil-South Africa (IBSA) and we were honoured to share your
company and insights last month in Brasilia, on how to strengthen South-South
relationships.
Further, Your Excellency, we are privileged to have India as an ally as we
work together in multilateral fora, especially to address such important
challenges as reforming the United Nations and the Bretton Woods institutions
and fighting international terrorism. We are encouraged that India continues to
be a reliable partner in our on-going efforts for the renaissance of our
continent, and in this regard value your partnership with the African Union and
its programme, the New Partnership for Africa's Development (NEPAD).
Your Excellencies, ladies and gentlemen:
Please join me in a toast to the good health and prosperity of His
Excellency, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Mrs Kaur and to the long-lasting
friendship, co-operation and partnership between the peoples of India and South
Africa. To friendship!
Thank you.
Issued by: The Presidency
2 October 2006
