ADDRESS BY THE PRESIDENT OF INDIA, SHRI RAM NATH KOVIND AT THE LUNCHEON BANQUET HOSTED BY THE GOVERNOR GENERAL OF AUSTRALIA
Sydney : 22.11.2018
1. I thank you, Your Excellency, for your gracious words of welcome and warm hospitality.
2. I am delighted to be paying the first Presidential visit from India to Australia. Our two countries enjoy warm and friendly relations underpinned by shared values and strong people-to-people ties. Commonwealth, curry and cricket once defined our shared culture, but we have moved beyond. We have expanded our ties in defence and security; trade and investment; technology and knowledge; and environment and energy fields.
3. Our strategic partnership and our common geopolitical understanding have imparted a new salience to our bilateral engagement. It has made our agenda and action that much deeper and meaningful.
4. Our togetherness goes back deep into history. When the new settlers arrived here in the 18th Century, the first supplies to support, nourish and house them were sent from India. The India connect only grew over time. Out of the first five Governors of this province, four had spent a substantial part of their careers in India. We cherish our historical connect, as much as we celebrate our contemporary partnership.
5. Over the years, our ties have grown from strength to strength. Our economic collaboration has expanded several-fold and we both remain eager to investment more, trade more and transact more. Our knowledge, education and technology partnerships are challenging new frontiers. And together, we are bringing prosperity and growth for one and many.
6. Excellency, in the past we have fought together, in trenches and in faraway lands, for freedom and liberty. And today we are harnessing energies to make the planet sustainable and secure. We are, indeed, proud of our partnership. Let us work to make India-Australia relations grow higher and stronger.
Thank you!
Toast
Excellencies, Ladies and Gentlemen, please join me in raising a toast:
- To the health and happiness of Her Majesty the Queen and the warm and special people of Australia ;
- And to an enduring and ever-lasting friendship between our two countries