State Palace, Jakarta, 5-11-2008

Remarks at A State Banquet in Honour of President Republic of Madagascar

 

REMARKS BY
H.E. DR. SUSILO BAMBANG YUDHOYONO
PRESIDENT REPUBLIC OF INDONESIA
AT A STATE BANQUET IN HONOUR OF
H.E. MARC RAVALOMANANA
PRESIDENT
REPUBLIC OF MADAGASCAR
STATE PALACE,  5 NOVEMBER 2008



<i>Bismillah Hirrahmanirrahim
Assalamualaikum Wr Wb</i>

Your Excellency President Marc Ravalomanana, and First Lady Lalao Rakotonirainy,
Excellencies,
Distinguished Guests,
Ladies and Gentlemen,

I am very pleased to extend our warmest welcome to our good friend President Marc Ravalomanana and First Lady Lalao Rakotonirainy in Jakarta. I am indeed very pleased that Your Excellency have honoured my invitation for you to visit Indonesia.

I had the pleasure of receiving Your Excellency in 2005, during the Asian-African Summit, which makes this your second visit to Indonesia. This time we are getting together for strictly bilateral purposes and it is therefore a momentous event in the relations between our two countries.

Our bilateral relations have steadily grown stronger since we launched diplomatic ties between our countries on 25 June 1975. The truth, however, is that the links between our peoples go back to prehistoric times.

That explains why there are so many similarities in our cultures and in our languages. Indeed, many centuries ago, peoples from different parts of Indonesia migrated westward and eventually reached and settled in Madagascar. In the process, there were intermarriages with African and Arab peoples and the result is the rich mixture of cultures and bloodlines that Madagascar can be proud of today.

Thus, your visit here to Jakarta is not only a meeting between an Asian and African nation in the spirit of Asian-African partnership. It is also a reunion of blood kindred.

This morning, President Marc Ravalomanana and I held very constructive discussions on how enhance our bilateral relations. It was a very warm and productive meeting.

We agreed to step up cooperation in agriculture, energy, trade and investment, forestry, and socio-cultural exchanges. We also witnessed the signing of the Memorandum of Understanding between our Governments on the establishment of a Joint Commission for Bilateral Cooperation.

In line with this, I will soon send an economic delegation to Madagascar, led by one of my Ministers, which will include the private sector.

There is also a great deal that we can achieve together in the fields of culture and tourism, considering that both our countries have an immense wealth of cultural heritage.

We also agreed to expand our security cooperation and military to military relations as we realize that the world is notices facing a gradual of non traditional of security threat while maintaining international peace and security.

Hence, I look forward to our further efforts to coordinate our policies and to explore new avenues for our cooperation. I also expect that we will have more people-to-people contacts as we encourage our respective entrepreneurs, educators, students, scientists and all stakeholders to get together and cooperate for mutual benefit.

Our businessmen and industrialists, I am sure, will find creative ways of promoting our trade and investment relations so that they will contribute to our respective national development.

In sum, I am confident that Malagasy-Indonesian relations will grow from strength to strength in the years ahead.

Let me now take the opportunity to congratulate Your Excellency on Madagascar getting elected to host the African Union Summit in July 2009 and the Francophone Summit in 2010. These are well-earned and well-deserved honours. I wish you success in these undertakings.

May I now request every one of you to rise and join me in a toast to the health and success of His Excellency President Marc Ravalomanana and to the prosperity of our two countries.

I thank you.  

*****


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