[Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents Volume 36, Number 38 (Monday, September 25, 2000)]
[Pages 2125-2126]
[Online from the Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]

<R04>
Remarks at a State Dinner Honoring Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee 
of India

September 17, 2000

    And Mr. Prime Minister, on behalf of the American people, let me 
welcome you again to the White House, along with all your party from 
India.
    I hope that in your time with us, we have at least come close to 
repaying the warm hospitality with which you and the Indian people 
greeted me, my family, and our fellow Americans on my visit in March.
    One of the most remarkable things to me about our relationship is 
its scope and its increasing interdependence. There are hundreds of 
American businesses, foundations, and universities with long commitments 
to India. When Americans call Microsoft for customer support today, 
they're as likely to be talking to someone in Bangalore or Hyderabad as 
to someone in Seattle.
    There are more than one million Indians here in America now, and I 
think more than half of them are here tonight. [Laughter] And I might 
say, Prime Minister, the other half are disappointed that they're not 
here. [Laughter]
    Indian-Americans now run more than 750 companies in Silicon Valley 
alone. In India,

[[Page 2126]]

the best information available on maternal health and agriculture can 
now be downloaded by a growing number of villages with Internet hookups. 
And Indian-Americans can now get on-line with people across the world 
who speak Telugu or Gujarati or Bengali.
    Americans have fallen in love with Indian novels. I'm told that 
Prime Minister Vajpayee, when he's not writing Hindi poetry, actually 
likes to read John Grisham. [Laughter] You might be interested to note, 
Prime Minister, that he's a distant relative of mine. All the Grishams 
with money are distant relatives of mine. [Laughter]
    And don't forget, whether we're in California or Calcutta, we all 
want to be a crorepati. Now, for the culturally challenged Americans 
among us, that's from India's version of ``Who Wants To Be a 
Millionaire?'' [Laughter]
    Of course, our interdependence is about more than commerce and 
culture. We are also vulnerable to one another's problems, to the shock 
of economic turmoil, to the plague of infectious diseases, to the spread 
of deadly military technology, and as we have all too painfully seen, to 
the terrorists, drug traffickers, and criminals who take advantage of 
the openness of societies and boarders.
    The simple lesson of all this to me, Mr. Prime Minister, is that if 
we're already all in the same boat together, we had better find a way to 
steer together. We must overcome the fear some people in both our 
countries sometimes have, for different historical reasons, that if we 
meet our friends halfway, somehow it will threaten our own independence 
or uniqueness.
    That is why I am so gratified that, with your leadership and the 
efforts of so many people in this room, we have together built the 
strongest, most mature partnership India and America have ever known.
    We have so very much more to learn from each other. In both our 
societies, you can find virtually every challenge humanity knows. And in 
both our societies, you can find virtually every solution to those 
challenges: confidence in democracy, tolerance for diversity, a 
willingness to embrace economic and social change.
    So it is more than a slogan for Americans to say that India's 
success will be our success and that together India and America can 
change the world.
    Ladies and gentlemen, I ask you now to join me in a toast to Prime 
Minister Vajpayee, to the Government and people of India, and the 
enduring partnership between our two great democracies.

Note: The President spoke at 8:03 p.m. in a pavilion at the White House. 
The transcript made available by the Office of the Press Secretary also 
included the remarks of Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee.