Your Majesty King Birendra Bir Bikram Shah Dev. Your Majesty Queen Aishwarya Rajya Laxmi Devi Shah.

It is indeed a great privilege and honour for me to welcome you this evening in the name of the Government and people of the Republic of Maldives. We have been eagerly looking forward to your visit to the Maldives which will no doubt give us the opportunity to further consolidate the existing friendly ties between our two countries.

Your Majesty:

What doubles my happiness tonight is the fact that I have had the great pleasure of meeting Your Majesty twice before at the last two Non-Aligned Summits in Havana and New Delhi and of observing Your Majesty’s eminent qualities as a scholar, statesman and leader. As a graduate of Eton and Harvard, you have acquired a high degree of learning; your numerous travels to the countries of the West and the East have enriched your outlook and have given you a deep insight into the workings and the complexity of the problems confronting the world today.

As an illustrious son of a great father, you have guided the destiny of your nation towards greater prosperity and progress. Nothing can prove your love for your people more than the epic treks you had undertaken to the far corners of your country at the tender age of twenty, travelling incognito, eating simple food and sleeping in huts and cottages and sometimes out in the open. Your simple ways and your concern for the ordinary man have earned you the love and esteem of your entire population.

Your Majesty:

The Maldives and Nepal, together with our neighbours, share a long history of common culture and tradition. Our institutions have been built upon a continuity of civilization, respect for the past and a flexibility of outlook which permits us to adapt our ways to the changing times.

Nature has endowed our two countries with innumerable bounties. The lofty Himalayan peaks, eternally clad in snow, look upon your lush valleys with their abundance of flora and fauna. Your magnificent landscapes, splendid temples and historical monuments are renowned throughout the world. Although we measure our heights only in a few feet, we too are proud of the beauty of our emerald sea, the sandy white beaches, the enchanting coral gardens, and the resplendent green islands. Our air is pure and our waters warm and clear. We fervently pray that neither of our countries loses these divine gifts in the pursuit of progress.

Nepal and the Maldives are indeed poor by material standards and share the dubious distinction of being counted among the world’s least developed countries. I recall with appreciation that Your Majesty personally attended the United Nations Conference on the Least Developed Countries held in Paris two years ago, and eloquently addressed that important gathering on behalf of the poorer Asian countries. Your Majesty’s participation made a deep impact on the deliberations of the conference and greatly strengthened the cause of the Asian least developed countries.

Both our countries are making strenuous efforts not only to attain economic and social progress but also to see to it that the benefits of development reach the common man. In this, Nepal and the Maldives encounter almost similar constraints. Your country suffers from being land-locked; we from being sea-locked. Transportation difficulties in this country constitute the biggest obstacle in providing even the most basic services to the people on our small islands which are separated by large expanses of sea.

To achieve any degree of development, we, as developing countries, need an environment of co-operation and understanding among the nations of the region. For this reason, the Maldives and Nepal have lent their full support to the concept of South Asian regional co-operation and we intend to work together for the implementation of the programme of integrated action agreed upon at the recently held First Meeting of the South Asian Foreign Ministers.

Nevertheless, the countries of South Asia have to achieve their development objectives in an adverse world economic situation. The advanced industrialized countries are seeking to cure their inflationary maladies and to protect their uneconomic industries with a prescription of high interest rates and elevated tariff barriers on the products of the developing countries. These policies greatly complicate the situation of the developing countries at a time when these countries are faced with an increasing need for international assistance to finance their development programmes and to alleviate their heavy foreign debt burdens.

In the light of this grave situation, the need to restructure the present international financial institutions has acquired a new urgency. Conceived and created more than three decades ago and geared to the needs of the advanced countries, these institutions have completely gone out of tune with the realities of the present-day world and the needs of the Third World countries. The high rates of interest on development capital need to be brought down, the stringent conditions of servicing foreign debt softened, and the unrealistic economic dogmas preached by these institutions replaced with understanding of the vicious circle that is rapidly tightening its relentless stranglehold on the economies of the developing countries.

Your Majesty:

While both our countries and our neighbours in South Asia are vigorously pursuing our economic and social development programmes, the dangers that threaten peace and stability in our region are growing every day. We are concerned that the Indian Ocean has become an arena for superpower rivalry. The immediate de-militarization of the Indian Ocean is in our view of vital importance to the security and progress of the countries of the region. Furthermore, the alarming consequences of the arms race are creating a dangerous world situation which will not leave us untouched. The huge spending of material and human resources on military build-up must be reduced and redirected to overcome the problems of hunger and malnutrition, illiteracy and disease that plague two-thirds of the world’s population today.

I cannot conclude my remarks without voicing once again the grave concern felt by the people of this country over the rapidly deteriorating situation in the Middle East, Southern Africa and other hotbeds of international tension. Peace cannot be achieved in these areas, or indeed anywhere in the world, unless aggression, persecution and oppression are brought to an end. Our solidarity is with the oppressed peoples of the world who are waging a valiant struggle to free themselves and their lands and to regain their legitimate rights as human beings. The day is not far off when they will surely attain their noble objective. That is the lesson of history.

Your Majesties:

We hope your stay in the Maldives, though very brief, will be enjoyable. On our part, we will do whatever we can to make it pleasant and memorable. We pray for your good health and happiness, and the prosperity and well-being of the people of Nepal.

Ladies and Gentlemen:

May I now invite you to raise your glasses to join me in a toast:
to the health and happiness of His Majesty King Birendra Bir Bikram Shah Dev, King of Nepal;
to the progress and prosperity of the people of Nepal; and

to the continued friendship and co-operation between our two Governments and peoples.

Thank you.