[Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents Volume 36, Number 37 (Monday, September 18, 2000)]
[Pages 2097-2098]
[Online from the Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]

<R04>
Remarks at a Welcoming Ceremony for Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee 
of India

September 15, 2000

    It is a special honor to welcome to the White House the Prime 
Minister of the world's largest democracy.
    Prime Minister Vajpayee, America always has had a great fascination 
with India, for its rich history, culture, great religions. And 
increasingly, we are fascinated by India when we think in terms of the 
future.
    We see in India today a rising economic leader, making breathtaking 
strides in information technology; an emerging environmental leader, 
promoting ambitious goals for energy efficiency; a pioneering health 
leader, recently immunizing 140 million children against polio; a leader 
in our community of

[[Page 2098]]

democracies, reminding the world that freedom is not a western value but 
a universal longing.
    Mr. Prime Minister, it is not only India's democracy but India's 
manner of achieving democracy that will forever inspire America.
    On my recent trip to India, I was profoundly moved by the visit that 
my daughter and our party and I had to the Gandhi Memorial. Tomorrow I 
will be proud to join you as you dedicate another Gandhi Memorial right 
here in Washington, DC. It is altogether fitting that both our nations 
honor him.
    Martin Luther King used Gandhi's teachings to show America that, 
while we held principles of equality we knew to be right, we permitted 
practices of inequality we knew to be wrong, and we have been changing 
for the better ever since.
    Mr. Prime Minister, from very different histories, India and the 
United States have forged a common bond, arising from our common 
commitment to freedom and democracy. Our challenge is to turn our common 
bond into common achievements. Today we will continue our work in areas 
where the world needs both America and India to lead if we are to defeat 
AIDS, reduce poverty, protect the global environment, and open the 
global economy.
    We will discuss our common desire to seek peace through dialog in 
South Asia. We will talk about our common interests in slowing the 
spread of nuclear weapons and the broader consequences of proliferation 
in South Asia. At the same time, we welcome India's commitment to forgo 
nuclear testing until the treaty banning all nuclear testing comes into 
force.
    No matter our differences--and two such large and diverse countries 
will always have some differences--as long as we are thinking, if we 
speak with care and listen with respect, we will find common ground and 
achieve common aims.
    Prime Minister Vajpayee, in your speeches you talk of India's 
ability to cherish its own marvelous diversity. In your poetry, you 
write of the importance of unity, saying that people of many faiths can 
have one dream in every eye.
    In America, we too have a dream of unity amidst our diversity. If 
people as diverse as we can affirm our common humanity and share common 
dreams, surely we should and can embrace common endeavors. Mr. Prime 
Minister, I thank you again for the wonderful welcome you and your 
people accorded to me, the members of my family, and my delegation on 
our unforgettable trip to India.
    I hope this, too, will be a great trip for you and that you will 
feel the warmth of America's welcome in return. But more than anything 
else, I hope this is the beginning of a long line of common endeavors.
    Thank you for coming here, sir, and welcome to America.

Note: The President spoke at 9:54 a.m. on the South Lawn at the White 
House, where Prime Minister Vajpayee was accorded a formal welcome with 
full military honors. The transcript released by the Office of the Press 
Secretary also included the remarks of the Prime Minister.