TO PRESIDENT
RAHDAKRISHNAN
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 something 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 supplemented. 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 129 -
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