Your Excellency Mr. Zail Singh, President of the Republic of India, Your Excellency Prime Minister Indira Gandhi, Honourable Ministers, Excellencies, Ladies and Gentlemen:

I have had the good fortune of visiting India many times. I have always found it an enriching experience to visit the land of Buddha, Tagore and Gandhi, the home of Nirvana, satyagraha and the philosophy of non-violence. It was only six months ago that I had the privilege of participating in the Non-Aligned Summit in this beautiful city of parks and flowers; and in 1978, when I was the Minister of Transport of my country, my wife and I had the pleasure of spending ten days in India at the invitation of your government visiting your main cities and places of historical importance – savouring the glory of your past and vitality of your present. In between, I had occasion to visit Madras, Bombay and Delhi for various purposes.

This time too, my wife, members of my delegation and I are indebted for the privilege of this visit to Your Excellency Mr. President, and the Government of India. We are grateful to you and Madame Prime Minister for the warm friendship and generous hospitality extended to us and for the excellent arrangements made for our comfort.

Mr. President:

Our presence here today is not the mere courtesy of accepting your kind invitation. It represents a positive re-affirmation of the bonds of friendship, goodwill and understanding that have existed between our two countries for a very long time.

When we speak of the traditional bonds between India and the Maldives, many amongst us will probably be thinking in terms of a few generations, or a few centuries at the most, over which these relations have existed. Some recent historical findings in southern Maldives – the ancient sun-symbol and some hieroglyphic inscriptions – have led researchers to suspect that early civilization in our islands may go as far back as the 15th century BC, and that it must have come to our shores from the Indus Valley. If this hypothesis is subsequently proved to be correct, it will also prove that contact between the Maldives and the subcontinent is at least 35 centuries old.

Whatever the date of the earliest contact between our two countries may be, what is certain is that we have had close cultural and trade links with each other for many centuries. These ties have developed rapidly during the last several decades, and specially after our Independence in 1965.

Both the Maldives and India after their respective independence have devoted themselves to pursuing a course of an integrated economic and social development of our countries. The primary concern for both our nations has been that the benefits of this progress enrich the life of the common man. Of course, the magnitude of the task and the material and human resources available to our respective countries are vastly different. India counts its population in millions; we do not even have as many thousands.

In our programmes of securing the health, education and well-being of our people, I note with satisfaction and appreciation the generous help received by us from India’s vast technical and man-power resources. India is now in its sixth five-year plan of economic and social development; we are embarking on our first. In this noble task, we shall look forward to continuing the exploration of areas of mutual benefit to our two countries within the context of the United Nations resolutions on Economic and Technical Co-operation between Developing Countries.

In addition to the rapidly growing bilateral co-operation between our two countries, we also share common objectives in many areas of regional and international concern. India and the Maldives are members of the United Nations, the Commonwealth and the Non-Aligned Movement. Both our countries respect the principles enshrined in the United Nations’ Charter. We are also deeply committed to the concept and objectives of non-alignment. In this respect, I am particularly happy that this great Movement will be under the stewardship of India for the next three years. We have no doubt that Prime Minister Indira Gandhi, a leader of rare ability and vision, will conduct its affairs with much skill and wisdom. I also take this opportunity to assure the Prime Minister of our full support in all her endeavours to further the cause of non-alignment and to promote its aims and objectives.

Allow me also to use this occasion, Mr. President, to express my satisfaction at the manner in which India and the Maldives have co-operated with each other in all the international fora where our two countries have participated. It is needless for me to go into the details of the numerous instances when close co-operation and collaboration have resulted in mutual benefit to our countries. The last such occasion was the meeting of South Asian Foreign Ministers which the Government of India hosted last month. Personally, I consider it a timely move to promote greater understanding and closer co-operation among the South Asian countries in order to generate a sense of collective self reliance among the countries in our sub-region.

Excellency:

In the wider field of international concern, we in the Maldives are deeply concerned over the continued escalation of tension in international relations, and the rapid increase in the incidence of armed conflicts the world over.

It is also with great alarm that we observe the increasing pace of not only the arms race between the super powers, but also arms sales and production. So much so that we today find the economic performance of some industrialised countries heavily dependent upon the production and sale of arms. What is deeply saddening is the fact that some of the developing countries themselves are for one reason or another caught up in the arms race – often as heavy consumers.

I do not wish to appear to be too pessimistic. But these trends, if unchecked, will in my view, only give rise to more international disputes and create new areas of tension, thereby increasing the dangers that confront mankind, at a time when hundreds of millions of people remain in want of their essential basic needs of food, clothing and shelter, not to mention their social and economic development. The world community has continuously called for complete disarmament in all its aspects. But neither the humanitarian aspect of diverting a substantial part of current military spending for development and progress nor the political consideration of preventing war and bloodshed seems to have a positive effect. If bolder action is not taken by the international community in this critical area, we fear that the world will be sliding down the path towards self-destruction.

In the Middle East, my Government fully supports the efforts of the United Nations and the Non-Aligned Movement aimed at the restoration of the inalienable rights of the Palestinian people, including their right to return to their homeland and decide their own destiny.

The suffering and the oppressed peoples of Namibia and Southern Africa, and the persistent refusal of the racist regime in Pretoria to respect the repeated calls of the United Nations and the Non-Aligned Countries present the world community with further cause for frustration and concern. On our part, the Maldives will continue to support all international efforts to remedy this despicable situation.

I do not feel that the tensions building up both in our part of the world and elsewhere consequent to direct military intervention, or other forms of covert and overt interference in the internal affairs of other countries need any further elaboration. Suffice it for me to say that my country considers all such actions contradictory to international law and the principles of the United Nations Charter. We firmly believe and maintain that the size, or the military strength of a nation cannot justify any attempt on its part to dominate another country politically, militarily, economically or otherwise.

Mr. President:

As we look round us, we see the continued escalation of military activity in the Indian Ocean. I am happy to note that our two countries have similar views on this issue. My Government calls for the early convening of the Colombo Conference to consider the implementation of the United Nations Declaration on the establishment of the Indian Ocean Peace Zone. I would also like to repeat my call voiced at the recent Non-Aligned Summit on the governments of all countries situated in or bordering on the Indian Ocean to hold urgent consultations in order to devise a new approach to the problem of the de-militarization of the Indian Ocean which will find a way out of the present stalemate.

Mr. President, Madame Prime Minister, Ladies and Gentlemen:

Permit me to close my remarks by saluting this great country – the land of love and human compassion. In this country, the teachings of all great religious figures such as Buddha, Ramakrishna, Jesus Christ and Prophet Muhammad have intermingled to produce a genuinely human philosophy that upholds the belief that God Almighty is the ever-present fountain of love. Who is more fitting than your great philosopher-poet, the immortal Rabindranath Tagore, to describe to us that divine love which is the true spirit of this land –
Who scatters love with reckless hands in the skies?
Lo, it streams from sphere to sphere.
The trees fill their foliage with it,
The flowers catch it on their petals,
The birds on their wings,
The child picks it up in the mother’s bosom,
And the mother beholds it in his upturned face.
That love flames up in sorrow, melts down in tears,
Flashes out in the battered heart of the fearless brave,
And dances away in cosmic rhythms of life and death,
Creation and destruction, through all climes and all ages.

Ladies and Gentlemen:

With this song of love, may I request you to join me in a toast:
to the health and happiness of His Excellency Mr. Zail Singh, President of the Republic of India, and of Her Excellency Prime Minister Indira Gandhi;
to the continued progress and prosperity of the people of India; and
to everlasting friendship and co-operation between our two Governments and peoples.

Thank you.