SPEECH BY SHRI K.R.NARAYANAN, PRESIDENT OF INDIA, WHILE RECEIVING CREDENTIALS FROM MR. ROBERT D. BLACKWILL, AMBASSADOR-DESIGNATE OF UNITED STATES OF AMERICA

NEW DELHI, SEPTEMBER 14, 2001

Excellency,

I am pleased to accept your Letter of Credence from President George W. Bush, accrediting you as Ambassador of the United States of America. I warmly welcome you to India and extend my felicitations on your appointment to this important position.

We are at a point of momentous change in the history of mankind. New technologies, new ideas and the ascendance of values cherished by both India and the United States have opened up new possibilities to bring together our peoples and those with whom we share this world for the all-round peace, progress and prosperity. But our pursuit of progress faces resistance from the unlearnt lessons of history and from many challenges, old and new. Every period of change carries an element of uncertainty about the direction that our collective future will take.

I share your President’s conviction that if we want a world shaped in the ideals that we both share, India and the United States must be closer friends and stronger partners. Anything less would only encourage those who still remain tied to the vestiges of the past, to the idea of domination and division. Indeed, as two democracies, committed to liberty, welfare and choice of every individual, our ties have a natural foundation. Our common values also lead to common concerns and intersecting interests that our two countries, emerging from the shadows of recent history, have now begun to increasingly recognise.

India and the United States must work together to make our nations safer, our economies stronger, our citizens more secure, our families more prosperous and our children better educated and healthier. This places on our two sides an inevitable responsibility to co-operate across a very broad agenda of bilateral and international endeavours; advance regional and global peace, stability and security; promote trade between our countries and collaborations between our businesses; bring our scientists and our laboratories together; address our common and growing challenge of energy security; make our environment cleaner; improve our knowledge of medicine and our ability to contain disease; combat terrorism and related crimes; support the United Nations in its mandate and make its institutions more effective and more representative and nurture the ties between our peoples.

It is with a sense of grief and outrage that I convey my condolence and sympathy for the immense tragedy that has resulted from the barbaric terrorist attack on the United States. This reprehensible act is a crime not just against the United States but against all humanity. We stand united with the American people in this hour of grief.

In recent times, our relations have been infused with new warmth and confidence, while our co-operation has deepened and diversified into new areas. As we travel on this path, appreciating and accommodating each other’s concerns, we will open the doors to new possibilities and we will also discover surprisingly large common ground between us, even on issues that seem to divide us. I am also certain that the spirit of democracy and debate that characterises the internal discourses in our countries will also shape our bilateral dialogue, so that when we differ, we shall do so in a spirit of candour, respecting each other’s point of view and speaking to each other constructively to resolve differences.

We appreciate President Bush’s desire to deepen India-U.S. ties and strongly reciprocate that sentiment. We value the high level of interaction that has already been established between our two Governments. We must now build on this momentum to give concrete shape to our shared vision of a closer, more broad-based and more meaningful relationship between our countries. In choosing you as his representative, President Bush has not only continued the tradition of distinguished citizens of the United States serving as Ambassadors in New Delhi but has also signalled his commitment to furthering the relationship between our two countries. I look forward to welcoming President Bush to India.

Excellency, you will see during your tenure here, something of eternal India and also of the contemporary. Above all, you will experience that Indians and the Americans mirror each other in their deepest ideals. I wish you all the best for your assignment as the Ambassador of the United States of America to the Republic of India.

Thank you