Following is the text of the speech of the Prime Minister Shri Atal Bihari Vajpayee at the banquet hosted by the Prime Minister of Malaysia, Dr. Mahathir bin Mohamad in Kualalampur today:

Allow me to thank you for your warm words and for the gracious welcome, which you have extended to me and to the members of my delegation.

It has been truly said that Malaysia combines in itself the very best of East and West.

Your generous and genuine hospitality is in the best traditions of the Orient.

And from the Occident, you have taken the most modern in terms of technology to improve the lives of your people and to raise the global stature of Malaysia.

Your Excellency, Malaysia’s all-round progress is truly a testimony to your farsighted and dynamic leadership.

India admires the rapid growth of the Malaysian economy under challenging conditions.

We are also struck by its tremendous resilience, as shown by the speedy recovery from the recent South-East Asian financial crisis.

You surmounted this trying situation without dependence on external borrowings and without following policy prescriptions given by outside bodies.

Your experience has a useful lesson for developing nations.

India and Malaysia are maritime neighbours. Our seafaring traders have known each other through the millennia.

India seeks to build a stronger structure on the foundations of this long friendship, based on enhanced people-to-people interaction in every field, and on substantially strengthened economic engagement in both old and new areas.

Today India is among the ten fastest growing economies in the world, and the fourth largest economy in Purchasing Power Parity.

The process of economic reforms, which were initiated a decade ago, has created many opportunities for trade, business, and investment.

I am happy that Malaysia is already India’s largest trading partner in ASEAN.

In addition to traditional areas of cooperation like oil and palm oil, we should tap the full potential in infrastructure development and newer knowledge-based technologies.

You can build more highways in India, and we can build more railways in Malaysia.

We should try to maximize the synergy between India’s software proficiency and Malaysia’s impressive manufacturing strengths in hardware.

Sustainable progress in these knowledge-based enterprises depends on education and training of young men and women in large numbers.

India would be happy to share its expertise in professional and technical education with your country for mutual benefit.

Your Excellency, India and Malaysia share a common cultural heritage that goes back several millennia.

In later centuries, traders from India played a major role in the spread of Islam in your country.

For both of us, diversity is the signature of our nationhood. Yet, there is an inherent and essential unity in our multi-layered diversities.

Both our national traditions abhor religious extremism and terrorism, which are a threat to a peaceful global order.

India and Malaysia can share each other’s contemporary experiences in achieving economic progress while preserving our traditional family and social values.

The large population of the Malaysian Indian community constitutes an important part of your multi-ethnic society.

These people of Indian origin made Malaysia their permanent home generations ago.

I am gratified that, as loyal citizens of your country, they have contributed significantly to Malaysia’s rapid and all-round progress.

I am confident that they will contribute in greater measure in the years to come by dint of their patriotism, hard work, and fully seizing all the opportunities that a continually prospering economy can offer.

Both our countries fully share the perspective that globalization must benefit, and not further handicap, the developing nations, especially the poorest among them.

That is why, India and Malaysia often find themselves taking common positions in the WTO and in other global fora, including on important issues such as the reform of the international financial architecture.

A new world economic order, based on justice and equity, is also essential for Asia’s renaissance in the new century.

India attaches the highest importance to its well-established association with ASEAN, through its dialogue partnership and through its participation in the ASEAN Regional Forum.

India particularly values Malaysia’s role as the Coordinator Country for India and looks to it for guidance in evolving our future plans with ASEAN.

It is in our mutual and regional interest to carry forward India’s association with ASEAN to higher levels.

I would like to sincerely thank the people and the government of Malaysia for their generous contribution towards the relief and rehabilitation of the victims of the recent earthquake in Gujarat.

I am truly touched by this humanitarian gesture.

Your Excellency, even at this early stage of my visit to your beautiful country, I can already feel the stirrings of a new excitement, an anticipation of great things to come in our bilateral friendship.

I am reminded here of your inspiring slogan to your people: Malaysia Boleh (Malaysia Can Do It!).

Allow me to extend it to our bilateral cooperation by saying: Malaysia India Boleh (Malaysia and India Can Together Do It!)

Excellencies, Ladies, and Gentlemen, I would now like to invite you to join me in a toast

* to the good health of His Majesty, the Yang di-Pertuan Agong

* to the good health of His Excellency Prime Minister

Dato Seri Dr. Mahathir bin Mohamad;

* to the continued prosperity and success of the Government and people of Malaysia; and

* to the strengthening of India-Malaysia friendship and cooperation in all fields.

Thank you”.