[Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents Volume 36, Number 12 (Monday, March 27, 2000)]
[Pages 589-590]
[Online from the Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]

<R04>
Remarks at a State Dinner Hosted
by President Justice Shahabuddin Ahmed of Bangladesh in Dhaka

March 20, 2000

    Mr. President, Prime Minister, distinguished guests, this has been a 
day of extraordinary hospitality, insight, and discovery for us. On 
behalf of the American delegation, I thank you for all you have done to 
make us feel at home.
    For 5 years now, my wife and daughter have been singing the glories 
of Bangladesh. Finally, I am glad to see for myself. This day has been a 
watershed for both our nations. Americans admire Bangladesh as a proud 
Muslim nation, devoted to peace with its neighbors, to peacekeeping 
around the world, to tolerance and diversity within its borders. When 
the great Bengali writer Rabindranath Tagore was awarded the Nobel Prize 
for literature, he said this: ``I am glad

[[Page 590]]

I have done some work to give expression to this great age when the East 
and the West are coming together.''
    Although he did not live to see the creation of Bangladesh, Tagore 
would doubtless be proud of all you have done to lead your people into a 
new century. I believe he would also approve of what we did today to 
bring the East and the West closer together.
    I was deeply gratified this morning to be the first American 
President to arrive in Bangladesh, and I am proud of the kind of 
partnership we are forging. It is about more than the ceremony of a 
state visit. It is about promoting democracy and the values that give 
meaning to our lives. It is about helping children stay in school and 
have a better future, about investing in people who have never been 
given a chance to succeed before, and investing in a nation that now has 
a chance to succeed as never before.
    Tomorrow the Sun will rise on a deeper friendship between America 
and Bangladesh. Through our ceremonies and our conversations, we have 
hastened the arrival of a more peaceful new day, the kind of day that 
Tagore spent his life imagining. A new day comprehending not only the 
absence of war and suffering but the presence of mutual understanding 
and common endeavors.
    On behalf of all Americans, I pledge that we will work with you to 
build on this good day, to soften the hard facts of daily hardship, to 
make real the poetry of our finest aspirations.
    I ask you now to join me in a toast to the President, the Prime 
Minister, the people of Bangladesh, and the friendship between our two 
nations. May it grow. May it deepen. May it affect the lives of our 
people in ways that are truly good.
    Thank you very much.

 Note:  The President spoke at approximately 8:30 p.m. in the Banquet 
Hall of the Bangabhawan. In his remarks, he referred to Prime Minister 
Sheikh Hasina of Bangladesh. The transcript released by the Office of 
the Press Secretary also included the remarks of President Ahmed.