Foreign Affairs Record 1969 Vol
Total Page:16
File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb
1969 January Volume No XV No 1 1995 Content Foreign Affairs Record 1969 Vol. XV JANUARY No. 1 CONTENTS PAGE BULGARIA Prime Minister's Speech at Banquet in Honor of Mr. Zhivkov 1 Reply by Mr. Zhivkov 2 Indo-Bulgarian Joint Communique 4 COMMONWEALTH PRIME MINISTERS' MEETING Final Communique 6 COUNCIL OF EUROPE Shri Dinesh Singh's Address to Consultative Assembly 15 HOME AND FOREIGN AFFAIRS President's Message on Republic Day 20 IRAN President's Speech at Banquet in Honour of His Imperial Majesty 21 Reply by His Imperial Majesty 23 Joint Communique 25 NEW ZEALAND Prime Minister's Speech at Banquet in Honour of Mr. Holyoake 27 Reply by Mr. Holyoake 29 Joint Communique 31 MINISTRY OF EXTERNAL AFFAIRS EXTERNAL PUBLICITY DIVISION GOVERNMENT OF INDIA (Continued Overleaf) PAGE TASHKENT DECLARATION President's Message on Third Anniversary 32 Prime Minister's Message to President Ayub Khan 32 Prime Minister's Message to Premier Kosygin 33 (ii) BULGARIA IRAN NEW ZEALAND INDIA UZBEKISTAN Date : Jan 01, 1969 Volume No XV No 1 1995 BULGARIA Prime Minister's Speech at Banquet in Honour of Mr. Zhivkov The Prime Minister, Shrimati Indira Gandhi, made the following speech at a Banquet given in honour of His Excellency the Prime Minister of Bulgaria, Mr. Todor Zhivkov, in New Delhi on January 22, 1969: Mr. Chairman, We are happy to have you in our midst. Your visit marks one more important stage in the growing friend- ship between Our two peoples. When I visited your beautiful country a little more than a year ago, I gained a fuller appreciation of the spirit of your great people, of your Own dynamic and purposeful leadership and of the need for strengthening the relations between our two nations. I was impressed by the rapid progress made by Bulgaria in industry, agriculture, in promotion of tour- ism and in social services. Much has happened since we last met and the world picture is fast changing. The recent remarkable achievements in space travel have evoked worldwide admiration and wonder. A great knowledge of the universe will enable man to know his world better and we hope that the knowledge gained will be used for the welfare of humanity as a whole and the betterment of the vast numbers of those who are still underpriviledged. Compared to these achievements, we are far behind in the scientific field. How- ever, in a few months we shall be com- missioning the first of our atomic power stations. We believe in utilising atomic energy only for peaceful purposes and to improve the lot of our people. We are striv- ing hard to increase our production and to strength our industrial base. Your tour of our country will take you to some of our new industrial cities and centres of technology. Little by little great changes are being brought about. Yet, such is the size of our population and the magni- tude of our problems of development that we can only claim to have laid the basis of modernization and progress. My father once spoke of ours as a generation sentenced to hard labour. The term of the sentence has still to run out. We must continue to work hard so that we can achieve deliverance from poverty as 22 years ago we achieved freedom from colonial bondage. Knowledge should lead to greater under- standing and tolerance but, unfortunately, we find that outdated ideas of racial superiority and of spheres of influence still persist and economic disparities continue to widen. The two major problems which confront the world and which we discussed previously, still remain unsolved, i.e. Vietnam and West Asia. We are glad that some progress has been made in Paris and we hope that serious negotiations will now begin for a peaceful settlement within the broad framework of the Geneva Agreements of 1954 of the tragic conflict in Vietnam. We must register our regret at the distress and aggressiveness which continue to plague the situation in the West Asia. The battle of peace cannot be waged by one side making all concessions. We hope that reason will prevail and that another outbreak of hostilities will be avoid- ed. Our two countries are one in supporting the efforts of the United Nations to find an amicable solution of the problems arising out of the conflict of June, 1967. The U.S.S.R. and France have taken some initiative. We trust that this initiative will broaden the idea of co-operation in support of Jarring Mission. 1 In these circumstances, the relevance of the policies of co-existence and non-align- ment needs to be re-stated. We believe in peaceful co-existence with other countries irrespective of their social and idealogical systems. We do not covet the territory of others. We believe that non-interference in the affairs of other countries is one of the corner-stones of the policy of peaceful co- existence and that force should not be used as a means for settling disputes. We are ceaselessly striving for meaningful inter- national co-operation. Without such a co- operation, world will plunge into old and new divisions. Suspicions and rivalries will in- crease and power politics which is basically out of date will have a new lease of life. We are also deeply committed to the policy of non-alignment because we believe that it serves the cause of peace and of economic development. For the family of developing nations to which we belong, a peaceful world is a necessity. But peace does not merely mean the absence of conflict. Peace stands for economic co-operation between Countries and bilateral assistance programmes, so that people can achieve that economic prosperity and social justice which is their due. Bulgaria and India already have a number of bilateral agreements on trade, cultural exchange and technical and scientific co-operation, and we hope this co-operation will grow and strengthen. May I propose a toast to the health of the Chairman of the Council of Ministers of the People's Republic of Bulgaria, to the strength and prosperity of the Bulgarian nation and to the further blossoming of Indo- Bulgarian friendship. BULGARIA INDIA USA VIETNAM FRANCE SWITZERLAND Date : Jan 01, 1969 Volume No XV No 1 1995 BULGARIA Reply by Mr. Zhivkov Replying to the toast proposed by the Prime Minister, Shrimati Indira Gandhi, Mr. Zhivkov said: Your Excellency, Ladies and Gentlemen, The first day of our visit to India is drawing to a close. Since our very first hour on Indian soil our stay has been filled with interesting and useful meetings and talks. I would like to stress that when political and state figures are guided by the vital interests of their peoples and when they speak the language of peace and friendship, they can soon find a common language. That has been the case today too. Furthermore, your visit to Bulgaria, distinguished Mrs. Gandhi, has already prepared the ground for that. During your visit to Bulgaria in 1967, You were in a position, although briefly, to get acquainted with our country, to feel the constructive spirit of present-day Bulgaria to come to know the love of peace and friend- liness of our people. Having waged cen- turies-long struggles for their national and social liberation, our people have finally taken the broad path of socialist construc- tion. YOU could personally witness the friendly feelings of the Bulgarian people for the people of India, for their heroic struggle against colonial bondage, for their efforts in building a new life. You could feel the enormous popularity enjoyed in Bulgaria by the inspirers and builders of new India, you could feel how much alive in the memory of the people are the names of the great sons of the Indian people Mahatma Gandhi and Jawaharlal Nehru, the name of your worthy predecessor Lal Bahadur Shastri. Your name, distinguished Mrs. Indira Gandhi, the name of an outstanding public and state figure of modern India, a great fighter for peace and friendship among nations, is one of the popular and highly respected names in Bulgaria today. I am certain that during your visit to Bulgaria you could personally become convinced of the sincere friendship Bulgaria has for the Republic of India, for its peace-loving and anti-imperialist foreign policy, for its noble and beneficial role in the world, for the public and state figures of India. We have come to India as envoys of our people and our mission has only one aim - to consolidate and promote our friendship to 2 which your visit to Bulgaria gave a strong impetus. Please allow me to express my conviction that our meetings and talks will continue in the same language and in the same spirit of friendship as in Bulgaria, as they have during the first day of our Visit. The kind words which you, distinguished Mrs. Gandhi, said about the People's Repub- lic of Bulgaria, the hospitality and cordiality with which we have been surrounded, the warm good wishes for the future of our people-all this has deeply moved us and has evoked in us not only gratitude but also confidence in the success of our mission. We live in two different continents, thousands of miles lie between our two countries. But if once, it took months to cover such distances, today a supersonic plane-such as the Soviet plane TU-144, will take a mere two hours so that we could have the pleasure of meeting and talking. This is the case with friendship too. Un- fortunately mankind has gone much further as far as hostility is concerned.