TO PRESIDENT RAHDAKRISHNAN / PRESIDENT OF INDIA HONOURED
Mr. President, it is with great pleasure both for Us personally and
for the entire Ethiopian nation, that We find you here with Us this
evening. We, and all Ethiopians with Us, join in welcoming you to our
country and in conveying to the Indian people, through you, renewed
assurances of the respect and friendship which join us.
The community of interest which surrounds and permeates relations
between Ethiopia and India is well founded and solidly based. Trade
between our nations flourishes. Indian skills and capital are
participating in the development of Ethiopian industry. Indian merchants
have been active in Ethiopia’s foreign and domestic commerce. Indian
teachers are taking part in the vast educational programme which has
been a corner-stone of Our policy for the accelerated development of Our
nation. Indian officers staff Our country’s Military Academy at Harar,
and others are assigned to military units elsewhere throughout Ethiopia.
Indians of all levels are active in local philanthropy and community
life. All Our relations with the people of India are not new but of
long-standing.
We naturally take satisfaction in the effective co-operation thus
achieved between our peoples. But despite all that has been realized,
there is much more that can be done. There is ample room for extensive
expansion of mutually beneficial and balanced trade between us, as our
economies continue to develop. It is Our deep desire that direct air
links between Ethiopia and India, as well as with other nations of the
Far East, may soon be established. Programmes of reciprocal technical
assistance can bring us even closer as new areas of joint activity are
explored. These and other steps can only serve to enhance and enrich an
already rewarding partnership, and We look forward to their
accomplishment in the months and years ahead. We have often stated, as
Our deepest and most abiding faith and conviction, the necessity for
continued peace if the millions, just now emerging into the new era of
progress and enlightenment which their struggles have foretold and
promised, are to reap the fruits of their labours. At this crucial
moment, when the spark of any local conflict can be borne on the wind to
light a world holocaust capable of destroying the lives and hopes of
millions upon millions of innocent men and women, the efforts of each
one of us must be redoubled to guard against such a catastrophe.
Similar Ideas and Goals
We have been, not unnaturally, saddened in recent weeks as two sister
states, states whose peoples should be striving together to overcome
the difficulties which beset them, have been locked in bloody and deadly
conflict. You know, Mr. President, that Ethiopians and Indians are
dedicated to the same ideals and united in devotion to the same goals.
We have stood together and proclaimed in union our common allegiance to
the principles of Bandung, principles enshrined in the Charter of the
United Nations and the Organization of African Unity. It has, therefore
come as a source of much solace and hope to Us that India has heard and
heeded the appeals which the United Nations and world leaders, Ourself
among them, have made that peace be restored. We are gratified that a
ceasefire has been effected on the battlefields on which India and
Pakistan have opposed one another and it is Our hope that the ceasefire
would be lasting and permanent. We are confident that, in the same
spirit in which strife and bloodshed have been halted, an acceptable and
honourable solution can be found to the problems facing India and her
neighbour.
During the few days you will spend with us, Mr. President, We trust
that you win come to appreciate the special qualities of Our land and
its people.
The bonds which link us are already close, but it remains nonetheless
important that we both know at first hand some-thing of the problems
and experiences which we share. In this manner, We shall strengthen and
solidify the unity of interest which is essential to the creation of an
ever broader base for our united action. Ethiopia and India have much to
accomplish together, and We are confident that your visit will open up
new ways for us to travel forward in harmony.
We must not let this occasion pass without recalling the memories of
those days when We visited the great Republic of India; of the
tumultuous welcome which greeted Us there, and the lavish and
outstanding generosity with which Our initial reception was hour by hour
sustained and supplement-ed. We hope that these short days you are
sharing with us, Mr. President, although they might not be as wonderful a
reception as it was when We visited India, will serve in some small
measure to reciprocate for what We experienced then.
May We now propose this toast to the furtherance and growth of the
existing warm friendship between the Indian and Ethiopian peoples; to
the universal acceptance and enrichment of the principles of reason and
conscience which upon Your Excellency the degree of Doctor of Letters,
to the long life and good health of Our honoured guest, President
Sarvapalli Radhakrishnan.
Oct. 12, 1965.
Important Utterances of H.I.M. Emperor Haile Selassie I - page 551 - &
Selected Speeches of His Imperial Majesty Haile Selassie - page 548 -
"We have often stated, as Our deepest and most abiding faith and conviction, the necessity for continued peace if the millions, just now emerging into the new era of progress and enlightenment which their struggles have foretold and promised, are to reap the fruits of their labours. At this crucial moment, when the spark of any local conflict can be borne on the wind to light a world holocaust capable of destroying the lives and hopes of millions upon millions of innocent men and women, the efforts of each one of us must be redoubled to guard against such a catastrophe."
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