Many years before the birth of the British and global anti-apartheid movement, a young Indian lawyer arrived in our country. This was Mahatma Gandhi who, as the people of India say, arrived in our country as a lawyer and returned to India as a liberator. These shared experiences of Gandhi brought the then struggling people of South Africa and India close to one another.

As India achieved independence in 1947, acting through the UN, she immediately took up the matter of racial discrimination in our country. From then onwards, she remained in the forefront of the global struggle against apartheid. To enable us further to broaden and deepen our relations with the Indian government and people, the Indian government allowed our movement, the ANC, to open a representative office in New Delhi.

Leaders of our movement who have served as our representatives in India include the late Alfred Nzo and our Treasurer General, Mendi Msimang. This indicates the importance our movement attached to the relations between ourselves and the sister people of India.

Last week we visited India with a large government and business delegation. Our visited coincided with the celebration of the 10th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations between our two countries. This was celebrated, in part, in a concert in Mumbai, in which two of our leading singers, Yvonne Chakachaka and Vusi Mahlasela performed.

The establishment of these diplomatic relations further strengthened the relations of friendship and solidarity that have existed ever since Mahatma Gandhi helped to organize the forces of liberation in our country, resulting, among other things, in the establishment of the then Natal and Transvaal Indian Congresses.

These bonds of friendship and solidarity have remained as strong as ever during the period since our liberation. And yet it was clear to both the Indian and South African governments that at the practical level, our relations did not reflect the deep-seated friendship that our peoples felt for each other. At the same time, it was equally clear that there was much scope for the expansion and deepening of our relationship, covering many areas.

At the international level, we are both members of the Non-Aligned Movement and the Commonwealth. In many instances, within these organizations, our two countries take the same or similar positions on the major issues of the day. This is equally true of the United Nations and other multilateral bodies.

This commonality of views and approaches has been demonstrated during the last few months when India, Brazil and South Africa decided to join hands in the IBSA Dialogue Forum. This Forum seeks to deepen the cooperation between our three countries in all fields, including international affairs, the economy, social development, science and technology, and so on. All informed observers understand the importance of this initiative with regard to giving practical effect to the idea of South-South cooperation.

An example of this is that the Southern African Customs Union, of which we are a member, is negotiating or about to negotiate Free Trade Agreements with both India and Mercosur, of which Brazil is an important member. The increased trade that will result from this will help all the countries concerned the better to meet their development challenges and use their comparative advantages to the mutual benefit.

Our need and ability to work together was also demonstrated during the recent WTO negotiations at Cancun, Mexico. In this instance, India, Brazil, China, South Africa, Nigeria, Argentina, Indonesia and other countries came together in the so-called G20+ to advance the interests of the developing countries as a whole. This cooperation will continue.

Even as we work together with these countries of the South to address these and other international questions, many of which relate to the important matter of North-South relations, we will also work steadfastly to strengthen our bilateral relations with them. This will include a trade agreement with China. The purpose of our visit to India was to address the matter of our bilateral relations, and thus add to the reinforcement of the process of building South-South relations.

India has a population of a billion people, which is larger than the population of Africa. It has a big economy, sections of which are at the cutting edge of the global economy. It is highly advanced in such areas as Information and Communication Technologies and Biotechnology.

It has a large pool of highly trained scientists, engineers, technologists and technicians covering many areas of human activity. For instance, just one of a number of Indian Institutes specializing in Cellular and Molecular Biology, has over 120 Ph.D. students specializing in this field of study. We were also told of a single project that, alone, employs more than 340 Indian aeronautical engineers.

Indian specialists in information and communication technology are much sought after in all countries of the world, including the most developed. Major international pharmaceutical companies source some of their drugs and medicines from Indian manufacturers, re-selling these under their own labels.

At the same time, a huge amount of work is going to bring India's considerable intellectual and other capacities to bear, to find solutions to such problems as poverty and underdevelopment, and the imbalance between the rural and the urban areas.

At the same time, India has some of the most outstanding companies in the world, which produce both for the global market, and the large Indian population, which includes at least 300 million people belonging to the middle class.

We found an India keen to welcome us with great warmth and open arms. Here we found a people, government, politicians, business, workers, intellectuals, artists and others, all very keen to share whatever they can with us, to help ensure that we move forward speedily towards the realization of our goals of reconstruction and development. It would truly be difficult to find another country that betters India in terms of the strength and depth of the feelings of friendship and solidarity towards our country and people.

Our visit to India will lead to a radical expansion of our bilateral relations in all areas. It will significantly increase our capacity to meet the national challenge to create a better life for all. Without reducing our relations with the countries of the North, it will expand our possibility to build our future on the basis of strengthened relations with a strategically important country of the South and the world.

Our visit to India served as a dignified tribute and a pledge to a shared son of South Africa, India and the world, Mahatma Gandhi. Together with the UK-South Africa Solidarity Conference, it made the statement that the peoples of the world have the possibility to define the process of globalization in a manner that promotes the goal of building people-centred societies.

We enjoy the rare fortune that on our side, we have the people of India and the United Kingdom who have the courage and the heart to act in a manner that defines them as our all-weather friends. There can be no better company in which to celebrate our first decade of Liberation, no better company to be in as we confront the challenges of our Second Decade of Liberation.

Thabo Mbeki