SPEECH
BY SHRI K.R.NARAYANAN, PRESIDENT OF INDIA, WHILE RECEIVING CREDENTIALS FROM MR. ABD GHAFAR
BIN ISMAIL, HIGH COMMISSIONER DESIGNATE OF BRUNEI DARUSSALAM
NEW DELHI, NOVEMBER 16, 2001
Excellency,
I am
very pleased to receive from His Majesty the Sultan and Yang Di-Pertuan,
the Letter of Credence accrediting you as the High Commissioner of Brunei
Darussalam to India. I extend a warm welcome to you and hope that your
stay in India will be enjoyable and your tenure, fruitful.
I also
wish to thank His Majesty the Sultan for the kind sentiments he has expressed
for me and the people of India. Please convey, Excellency, my best wishes
to His Majesty for his good health and personal well-being as well as
for the happiness and prosperity of the people of Brunei Darussalam
India
and Brunei enjoy traditionally friendly and cooperative relations based
on our longstanding cultural and commercial contacts. Over the past few
years, our ties have shown steady growth. The visit of Her Royal Highness
Princess Hajah Masna, Ambassador-at-large to India last year has helped
in giving further impetus to our bilateral relations. We value our ties
with Brunei and would like to see them further expanding in various fields.
India
attaches great importance to its relations with South East Asian countries
and aims under its ‘Look East’ policy to further strengthen these relations.
We value our dialogue partnership with ASEAN and membership of the ASEAN
Regional Forum (ARF). After five years of successful India-ASEAN cooperation
we are now looking forward to further upgrading our interaction with ASEAN.
In this connection, India looks forward to a close relationship with Brunei
in the areas of bilateral cooperation and in the context of India’s dialogue
partnership with the ASEAN.
Excellency,
we are confident that your wide-ranging experience and skill as a diplomat
will help you to contribute towards furthering our bilateral relations.
In this task, I would like to assure you of the fullest cooperation and
assistance of my Government. I wish you every success in your mission
in India.
Thank you
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