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SPEECH
BY SHRI K.R.NARAYANAN, PRESIDENT OF INDIA, AT THE BANQUET IN HONOUR
OF MR. TRAN DUC LUONG, PRESIDENT OF THE SOCIALIST REPUBLIC
OF VIETNAM AND MADAME NGUYEN THI VINH
NEW DELHI, WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 1, 1999
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Your Excellency
President Tran Duc Luong,
Madame Nguyen
Thi Vinh,
Excellencies,
Ladies and Gentlemen,
It is with
the greatest pleasure that I extend a warm and cordial welcome, on behalf
of the Government and people of India, to Your Excellency, to Madame Nguyen
Thi Vinh and the distinguished Ministers and Members of your delegation.
Your visit brings to mind the historic visit to India of President Ho
Chi Minh in 1958 which remains vividly etched in our memory. Ho Chi Minh
was one of the pre-eminent figures of our century. His life was epic in
its scale and achievement. He and Prime Minister Nehru laid the foundations
of the fraternal relationship that exists between our two countries. They
were the leaders of the anti-colonial movement that shaped a new order
of equality and justice for the peoples of Asia and the world. This visit
of yours, Excellency, as the President of free and reunited Vietnam, is
another landmark in the history of our relations.
I had the
privilege of representing India in your beautiful and friendly country
in the early 1960s, at a time when the Vietnamese people were engaged
in a heroic struggle for the freedom and reunification of your country.
And I had the good fortune to know personally President Ho Chi Minh and
some of the legendary figures of that struggle who were also heroes for
the people of India. It is therefore a matter of special happiness for
me and my wife to welcome you as the first President of Vietnam to visit
our country after Ho Chi Minh's memorable visit to India in 1958.
The interaction
between India and Vietnam goes back over two millennia. The temples in
Southern and Central Vietnam bear testimony to our centuries old cultural
and commercial interaction. And our political bonds were forged in our
struggle against colonialism. It was during one of these days that Ho
Chi Minh sitting in his prison cell wrote a poem to Jawaharlal Nehru in
which he said:
Thousand miles
apart,
We have not
met.
We communicate
without words,
Shared ideas
link you and me
It was the
shared ideas which made us ardently to support each other in our respective
struggles for freedom and nationhood. It was in the same spirit of shared
destiny that in 1947, a few months before India became independent, Jawaharlal
Nehru organized the Asian Relations Conference in Delhi to which Vietnam
was invited. The letter of invitation was delivered to Ho Chi Minh in
Colombo while he was in transit to France. Replying to Nehru's letter
Ho Chi Minh expressed the hope that there would soon be a settlement in
India and India would emerge united out of it. Interestingly he added:
"When the two big Asiatic countries, India and China, stood up united,
then will all the countries of Asia stand up and prosper". It was this
vision of Asia that was articulated at the Conference and pursued by India
thereafter. Since then Vietnam had to wage a bitter and prolonged struggle
for its freedom and unity. To-day we welcome you to India as the Head
of State of victorious Vietnam in that heroic struggle.
It is a matter
of great satisfaction to us in India that our two countries have built
upon our historic friendship and mutual support in our freedom struggles,
an intimate and modern relationship of friendship and co-operation which
can be model to other nations in our continent. We are happy, Excellency,
that Vietnam has emerged from a devastating war not only re-united nation,
but a stable polity and one of the fastest growing economies of the region.
As a member of the ASEAN you have added strength to the South East Asian
region and are a source of peace and stability in Asia. In the meantime
we in India have also been developing and progressing. After a phase of
planned economic development which laid the foundations of our progress,
we have achieved self-sufficiency in foodgrains to be able to feed our
one billion people, and self-reliance in modern industry and science and
technology and we have to-day moved with the rest of the world into a
new stage of economic liberalisation and reforms.
To-day India is one
of the top ten economically advanced countries of the world. During the
last one decade our economy has been growing at an average rate of 5 to
6% a year and we have projected a growth rate of 6 to 7% in the next decade.
I am glad to say that in this new context India and Vietnam are co-operating
with each other in crucial areas of agriculture, industry, science and
technology, defence, and human resource development to our mutual interest.
The prospects of our economic and technical co-operation between us are
bright and immense. Your Excellency's visit to India, accompanied by important
Ministers of your Government and a strong business delegation augurs well
for our future co-operation.
Excellency,
after the end of the Cold War and with the approach of the new millennium,
the world, we believe, is entering a new era of peace and co-operation.
It is a matter of great satisfaction for us that India and Vietnam are
closely co-operating with each other in the international fora. Both of
us believe that in the emerging system of world co-operation the United
Nations Organization occupies a central position. It is, therefore, important
to strengthen the United Nations by making it reflect the realities of
the present-day world and the aspirations of all peoples, particularly
in the developing countries, for equality and justice. We are, therefore,
highly appreciative of the stand taken by Vietnam on the question of reforming
and restructuring the United Nations and we are grateful to you for the
support you have given us for the inclusion of India in an expanded Security
Council. We believe that due representation should be accorded to developing
countries in the U.N. structure for the peace and stability of the world,
and we have the honour to work together with Vietnam towards that objective.
Excellencies,
distinguished guests, ladies and gentlemen, may I request you to join
me in a toast :
- to the health,
happiness and long life of His Excellency
President
Tran Duc Luong, President of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam and Madame
Nguyen Thi Vinh;
- to the well
being and prosperity of the valiant people of Vietnam; and
- to the strengthening
of bilateral relations and everlasting friendship between our two peoples
and countries.
Thank you
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