Foreign Affairs Record-1983
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1983 January + Volume No XXIX NO 1 1995 CONTENTS Foreign Affairs 1983 Record VOL XXIX No 1 January CONTENTS AFRICAN NATIONAL CONGRESS External Affairs Minister P. V. Narasimha Rao Hosts Dinner for African National Congress President 1 Text of A.N.C. President Oliver Tambo's Speech 1 ARAB REPUBLIC OF EGYPT Indo-Egyptian Cooperation: Memorandum of Understanding Signed 3 BELGIUM Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee Hosts Dinner for Foreign Minister of Belgium 4 Text of Belgian Foreign Minister's Speech 5 Belgium Loan to India 7 HOME AND FOREIGN AFFAIRS President Zail Singh's Republic Day Message 7 Disarmament -- A Vital Question: External Affairs Minister P. V. Narasimha Rao's Address at National Conference 9 IRAQ Agreed Minutes of Eighth Session of Indo-Iraq Joint Commission 12 NIGERIA Trade Agreement between India and Nigeria 13 India and Nigeria Ratify Cultural Agreement 16 Indo-Nigerian Joint Communique 16 REPUBLIC OF KOREA External Affairs Minister P. V. Narasimha Rao's Speech at Dinner for Foreign Minister of Korea 20 Text of Korean Foreign Minister's Speech 21 YPT BELGIUM UNITED KINGDOM INDIA IRAQ NIGER NIGERIA KOREA Date : Jan 01, 1983 Volume No XXIX NO 1 1995 AFRICAN NATIONAL CONGRESS External Affairs Minister P. V. Narasimha Rao Hosts Dinner for African National Congress President Following is text of the speech by the Minister of External Affairs, Shri P. V. Narasimha Rao, at a dinner hosted by him in honour of Mr. Oliver Tambo, President of African National Congress of South Africa, in New Delhi on Jan 21, 1983: I have great pleasure in extending a warm welcome to you, Mr. President and your distinguished delegation this evening. We recall vividly your last visit to receive the Jawaharlal Nehru Award for International Peace and Understanding on behalf of Mr. Nelson Mandela, the shining symbol of the new dawn of South Africa's horizon. We have watched with admiration the heroic and valiant fight which the ANC is waging, guided by Mr. Mandela's ideals and your able leadership. Every age has its heroes. Some are sawdust Caesars, born to a moment of power that proves as mortal as they themselves. The steel of history is fashioned by men whose minds, will and conviction have moulded the consciousness of their time. It is such a man we see in Nelson Mandela. INDIA'S POLICY TOWARDS APARTHEID As you know, Mr. President, we in India have always opposed racism and apartheid in all its forms. Given our own history, and the leadership of Mahatma Gandhi, it was only natural that we were much ahead of the UN in giving a call for comprehensive mandatory sanctions against South Africa. We know that the racist regime is today actively engaged in all kinds of fraudulent manoeuvres to perpetuate and further institutionalise its oppressive and inhuman system. At this moment liberation movements like the ANC need the full support of the whole world. Unfortunately, however, certain countries, who are unable to see the future beyond their immediate interests are encouraging a regime which has a reprehensible record of brutal repression on its own people and wanton aggression against independent neighbouring states. But there are clear signs of fear and desperation, among the racists and those who collaborate with them. They are swimming against the tide of history. We are sure that the sacrifices made by the freedom fighters in South Africa will win them the liberty so long denied in their country. We in India will continue to identify ourselves fully with you in your hopes and aspirations. We can understand you because we too have known what it is not to be free. Yet even as the night grows dark and chill, there is the promise of dawn. May I now invite you, ladies and gentlemen, to join me in proposing a toast for the health of Mr. Oliver Tambo, President, African National Congress and the members of his delegation, and to the speedy achievement of the cherished aspirations of the people of South Africa. DIA SOUTH AFRICA USA Date : Jan 21, 1983 Volume No XXIX NO 1 1995 AFRICAN NATIONAL CONGRESS Text of A.N.C. President Oliver Tambo's Speech Mr. Oliver Tambo, President of African National Congress said: Honourable Mr. Narasimha Rao, Minister of External Affairs of the Republic of India, Honourable Ministers and Members of Parliament, Your Excellencies, Members of the Diplomatic Corp, Distinguished Guests, Representatives of the -1> National Liberation Movements, Ladies and Gentleman, Comrades and Friends, the African National Congress is one of those forces in the world which are involved today in the noble fight to ensure a better, greater and happier tomorrow for humankind, against powers determined to perpetuate the miseries and sufferings of yesterday. It is a struggle by the weak to seize power from the powerful. By necessary definition, therefore, we stand in constant need of ever-increasing support, assistance and encouragement. INDIA'S SUPPORT Two examples suffice to demonstrate the crescendo of India's support for the cause of the people of South Africas led by the African National Congress: The one example was when, in 1980, an invitation was extended to Nelson Mandela to come to India to receive the Jawaharlal Nehru Award for International Understanding. Jawaharlal Nehru is the embodiment, the expression and the symbol of a people that has risen from the miseries of colonial bondage and is marching in massive unity to the conquest of a great future. Nelson Mandela, fighting from behind prison bars, has become the embodiment, the expression and the symbol of a people held in bondage by the most notorious regime in the world but resolute and unbending in their determination to break the bonds of enslavement and usher in a new are of freedom, peace and progress in South Africa and in the African subcontinent, and thus contribute towards the promotion of international understanding among peoples and nations. The linkage of Mandela to Nehru served to bind the Indian and South African peoples together in struggle and lent power and strength to the latter. Nelson Mandela could not come to India to receive Award. I came in his stead, and I found it impossible to imagine what more the Government and people of India could have done by way of support for our cause and for our struggle. And that support has contributed to the present favourable balance of forces within South Africa. For, the ANC is more powerful today than it was in 1980: our struggle has advanced towards its objectives, and our people, sensing victory, evince a heightened level of morale in their fight. INDIA'S ROLE COMMENDED Late last year, the Government of India invited the ANC to visit this country. This has turned out to be the occasion for an even greater contribution to our struggle. It all started with the arrival of the ANC delegation at the airport, where, having been received by Mr. J. R. Hiremath, Additional Secretary in the External Affairs Ministry and after being welcomed by members of the African Diplomatic corp, the delegation drove from the airport in a State car bearing two flags: the national flag of the Republic of India and the national flag of the people of South Africa led by the African National Congress. This is not merely a demonstration of support. It is much more; it is an act of support - and of assistance. As such it meets one of the most urgent needs of the situation in South Africa, Namibia, Angola and of Southern Africa. The greater need today is the need to act in support of the people and against the common enemy represented by the Pretoria regime and its chief ally, the Reagan administration. It is no longer sufficient to complain or condemn. By this act the Government and people of India - a nation of 700 million, are creating for the ANC and the majority of the people of South Africa a place among the independent and sovereign nations of the world. By that act, India is increasing the isolation of the Pretoria regime and reinforcing the growing belief in international circles that it is now only a matter of time before apartheid gives way to the emergence of a non-racial and -2> democratic South Africa as envisaged in the Freedom Charter of the South African people. Within South Africa and in the conduct of the Pretoria regime in relation to the countries of Southern Africa, there is abundant evidence that this regime's ability to rule in the old way is diminishing rapidly. It has become more violent than at any time in the past 3 decades of apartheid brutality. That violence has reached beyond South African borders and finds expression in death and destruction in African independent States as far afield as the Seychelles. What has now emerged as the main content of the beleaguered racist regime's international and external relations is a policy of bullying, blackmail and bribery on an incredible scale. Thus, on the one hand it is offering constitutional bribes and enticements to the "coloured" and Indian communities to come to its aid in the face of the rising tides of revolution from the oppressed and exploited majority in South Africa, coupled with the growing pressures from the international community. On the other hand, the opponents of white minority rule within South Africa are being subjected to increasing persecution whilst those in the neighbouring countries have become targets of assassinations and massacres. In these countries, the Pretoria regime invades and raids at will, it occupies the territory of the People's Republic of Angola: it maintains, equips and supplies bandit groups whose task is to kill and maim women and children, create conditions of general insecurity and sabotage the economy.