Oleh/By		:	DATO' SERI DR. MAHATHIR BIN MOHAMAD 
Tempat/Venue 	: 	NEW DELHI, INDIA 
Tarikh/Date 	: 	30/01/87 
Tajuk/Title  	: 	THE OFFICIAL DINNER HOSTED BY THE 
			PRIME MINISTER OF INDIA, HIS 
			EXCELLENCY, MR. RAJIV GANDHI 




 Your Excellency Rajiv Gandhi,
Prime Minister of India;
Excellencies;
Distinguished Guests;
Ladies and Gentlemen.
    It  is, as always, a great pleasure to be in New Delhi,
a city that I have visited on several occasions in the past.
Successive Malaysian Prime Ministers  have  always  found  a
warm  and  friendly  welcome  on  their visits here, which I
think attest to the  excellent  relations  between  our  two
countries.    I  am especially honoured, Mr. Prime Minister,
that despite the tremendous demands upon your time and  that
of  your  colleagues  and  officials  as  well, the  welcome
accorded to me and my delegation has been as unstinting  and
meticulous as they could possibly be.  Allow me to thank you
on  their  behalf as well as mine for your very warm welcome
and hospitality.
2.   We are meeting,  Mr.  Prime  Minister,  at  a  time  of
extreme confusion in the  affairs of the   world.  Change, a
normal   enough  situation  in  international  relations and
dealings has become  greatly  accelerated.  We have not only
to adapt to these  changes  but also  to the speed that they
take place.  Technology has  advanced so  fast, particularly
in the field  of communication, that  there is  literally no
more   domestic    problems.     All  problems  have    been
internationalised.   Since we have never really been able to
resolve international issues, our  capacity  to  deal   with
domestic     issues      has       shrunken    with    their
internationalisation.  Indeed, everyone now claims  a  right
to  solve  our domestic problems even though most have never
been able  to solve their own domestic problems.   The  fact
that  situations and even    public mores differ receives no
consideration. Still we must soldier for we re indeed living
in a global village.
3.   It  is  a  matter  of  deep  satisfaction,  Mr.   Prime
Minister, for me to observe that India has  equipped  itself
well  for  the  onslaughts  of  the  future.  You  and  your
government have not allowed the complexities of our times to
blunt your  resolve  to  find   imaginative   and   workable
solutions for the many problems that confront the world.  We
note with appreciation the initiatives that India,  alone or
in  concert    with like-minded nations, have taken, to ease
global  tension  and  distrust,  to  bring  more   equitable
economic  order and to  search  out  and  build new linkages
among and between nations. These initiatives are by no means
easy  to sustain  but  we    hope you will persevere for the
common good.  We in Malaysia extend  our  full  and  sincere
support to  you  in  these endeavours.
Mr. Prime Minister,
4.   India and Malaysia have much  in  common.    Throughout
history  your  country and mine have maintained links of the
most pervasive kind.  These links have  never  been  broken.
Our  peoples have freely interacted with one another.  Today
these links have achieved  impressive  breadth  and   depth,
reflecting our greater inter-dependency even as we pace each
other's growth.
5.   It is perhaps natural, Mr. Prime Minister, that such  a
freely developed bilateral relationship should allow for the
development  of  a political relationship marked by uncommon
understanding.   We share  membership  of  many  overlapping
international  groupings  in     which    we   share  common
perspectives  and  basically  common  approaches.  The great
moral and ethical  problems of our time, -- racial injustice
and political  repression  under  the obscenity of apartheid
in South Africa,  Israel's  illegal occupation of Arab lands
and  continued opposition to the creation of  a  Palestinian
State,  occupation  of  Afghanistan and Kampuchea by foreign
forces,     ever-widening  North-South  economic  inequities
and the     ever-escalating  arms  race require that we work
together to   strengthen international solidarity to resolve
them. The   Solidarity  Fund  for  Southern Africa which you
are  so ably  chairing,  the  International  Commission  for
South-South  Economic  Cooperation  under  the  Chairmanship
of  Dr Julius     Nyerere and the  Five  Nation  Disarmament
Initiative  with   which  you are deeply associated, are the
kind  of  endeavours  reflective  of  the  determination  of
countries such as  ours to  initiate  fresh  approaches   to
seemingly intractable  international problems.
6.   Closer  to  home,  Mr.  Prime  Minister, both India and
Malaysia, in concert with our regional partners, are pushing
the frontiers of mutual goodwill and cooperation as  far  as
they  are  politically  and   economically  practical    and
feasible.  We  in ASEAN will celebrate the completion of our
second decade in 1987.  Much has been done but even more are
required to be done.   Our experience teaches  us  that  the
conscious  effort at consultation and cooperation invariably
develops  a  momentum  of  its  own and after a time becomes
irreversible.    We   have   watched   with  admiration  the
achievement  of  South  Asian countries in  making  regional
cooperation under SAARC a reality. In just two  short  years
you  have, through collective commitment, impressed SAARC on
the global  consciousness.  We  in  ASEAN  look  forward  to
constructive engagement with SAARC in the near future.
Mr. Prime Minister,
7.   As  India and Malaysia march forward in consonance with
the dynamics of change, I wish to record my firm  conviction
that  the  ties  that bind us throughout history will become
ever stronger.  My  visits  to  your  country  --  and  this
particular visit is no exception -- have been altogether too
brief for me to  appreciate  fully  the  complexity  of  the
Indian subcontinent and  the magnitude of the tasks that you
have set for yourself.  But from what little I have seen and
heard each time, I am acutely aware of the quantitative  and
qualitative  progress  that your country, through successive
inspired leadership, has achieved.    During  this  visit  I
shall  have  the opportunity to acquaint myself with some of
the progress that  has  taken  place  here.    We  too  have
progressed through the years, and I hope it would not be too
long  before  you,   Mr.  Prime  Minister,  can  venture  to
"discover" Malaysia.  Our mutual progress offers, I believe,
excellent opportunities  to  explore  new  complementarities
even     as  we  seek to entrench previous and present ones.
India's   relations with Malaysia are very much in the idiom
of that    great  percept  of  Indian  civilization  --  the
notion of "change within permanence".  In that spirit I look
forward     to  expanding,  in  scope and depth, the several
discussions that we have managed to exchange during our past
encounters over several international conferences.
Mr. Prime Minister,
8.   I have been most touched by your kind words of welcome.
It is a welcome all the more appreciated for the constraints
of  time  and  duties you have had to overcome.  In thanking
you once again, I would like to  invite  this  distinguished
gathering to join me in a toast to:
     His Excellency President Giani Zail Singh,
     His Excellency Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi
                    and
     the   ever-expanding   relations   between   India  and
     Malaysia.