Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2007-04-25-Speech-3-116"
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"en.20070425.16.3-116"2
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"Mr President, honourable Members, it gives me great joy to be able to welcome, today, to this House, to the European Parliament, the President of the Republic of India, Mr Abdul Kalam. A very warm welcome to you, Mr President.
Before your election as President, you were well known as the architect of the Indian space and atomic energy programme, and you enjoy international renown as one of India’s most important scientists. Most of your previous life has been devoted to science and technology, and you have always given voice to the view that developing countries should take second place to others when it comes to harvesting the fruits of the most highly-developed technology, because technology – when used rightly – creates growth and can help to improve the day-to-day life of the poor. I do not doubt that this House agrees with your views and is therefore glad that India is participating in the research programmes funded by the EU, collaborating, for example, with us on Galileo.
Alongside the key role you played in promoting science and technology, we were also impressed by your election as President of the Republic of India in 2002, in which you achieved an overwhelming majority with votes from across all party divisions, and that, for you, as a Tamil and a Muslim in a country with a Hindu majority, was no mean achievement; it is evidence of your great ability to bring together people of every background, culture and religion. India is a country of many peoples and religions, and, as the largest democracy in the world, it can encourage new and young democracies.
The relationship between the European Union and India has been in existence since the early 1960s, when India was one of the first countries to establish diplomatic relations with what was then the European Economic Community.
Our contacts and cooperation at the parliamentary level are among the positive results of a long-term process, for the first meeting between the European Parliament and the Lok Sabha took place in 1981. For a number of years, parliamentary contacts between the European Parliament and India have taken the institutional form of a delegation of the European Parliament for relations with the countries of South-East Asia and the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation, the SAARC. Both the European Union and India have undergone fundamental changes over recent years.
I rejoice to be able to tell you that, over the past month, the European Parliament has set up – quite separately from the delegation to SAARC – a parliamentary delegation for relations with India, an action that takes account of the ever-increasing importance of your country to the European Union. We would very much welcome it, Mr President, if the Lok Sabha were to be able to respond by setting up a delegation for relations with the European Parliament in order to derive the maximum benefit from this deepening relationship and to make contacts between the two parliaments easier.
Mr President, you were invited by my esteemed predecessor in office Mr Borell Fontelles, who is present here today, and it gave me great pleasure to reiterate that invitation to you.
The relations between India and the European Union are not only of the greatest economic importance, but also of the greatest political importance. The dialogue of cultures is also of the greatest importance. It is therefore a great pleasure to invite you, Mr President, to take the floor to address the Members of the European Parliament."@en1
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