Farewell Remarks by Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs, Ms Sue van der Merwe, on the occasion of the Farewell Lunch in honour of High Commissioner Maduwegedera of Sri Lanka, Diplomatic Guest House, 11 July 2006

Your Excellency, High Commissioner Maduwegedera
Your Excellencies, Members of the Diplomatic Corps
Distinguished Guests
Ladies and Gentlemen

It is my honour to host this function to bid farewell to the distinguished High Commissioner of Sri Lanka, Mr. Maduwegedera and to celebrate the long standing good relations between our peoples.

Since the formalisation of our diplomatic relations after our independence, our bilateral relations have been growing from strength to strength. According to the Sri Lankan Ministry of Foreign Affairs "The establishment of diplomatic relations with South Africa … and the opening of a Resident Mission in Pretoria in … can be regarded as an important landmark in Sri Lanka's diplomatic history. There is considerable expectation that given the appreciation of the people of South Africa towards Sri Lanka for the solidarity and indfeed with oppressed people all over the world shown by the Government of Prime Minister Sirimavo Bandaranaike during the anti-apartheid struggle." The Sri Lankan Foreign Ministry at the time stated that: "the relationship is bound to have great promise in the future."

And indeed this promise has begun to be realised. I would like to extend our appreciation to High Commissioner Maduwegedera for his hard work during his stay in South Africa. Your Excellency, may I congratulate you on your achievements during your tour of duty in South Africa especially in developing bilateral relations.

The inaugural session of the South Africa - Sri Lanka Partnership Forum was held on 25 October 2005, in Colombo. This Forum will serve as the central framework agreement and mechanism to strengthen relations. South Africa will host the next meeting of the Partnership Forum around October / November this year.

A Sub-Committee has been convened to this effect. New business opportunities between the South African and Sri Lanka business communities to engage positively would be supported and encouraged.

Also during your tenure, the South African Micro-Mission was opened in Colombo in January 2006, to strengthen and consolidate bilateral, political, economic and trade relations with a focus on promoting trade and investment between Sri Lanka and South Africa.

The establishment of a South African Mission in Colombo is indicative of South Africa's wish to engage more closely with Sri Lanka and to broaden our relationship.

In addition, Ambassador Pheto has been appointed Roving Ambassador / Non-Resident High Commissioner to Sri Lanka and we just awaiting date of presentation of credentials to be conveyed, upon which she will travel to region as soon as date has been determined, to present credentials to President Rajapakse.

High Commissioner, we look forward to your successor and hope he (or she) will continue from where you left off. We will co-operate with him in every way we can so that we may fully realise the objectives of the of the Partnership Forum and the Sub-Committee on Trade and Investment.

Ladies and Gentlemen:

Besides our bilateral relations, we also co-operate through trilateral and multilateral platforms, which are critical to our agenda of creating a better Africa and a better world. In today's increasingly globalising world, we need to continue to make our presence felt through a vibrant South-South co-operation agenda to ensure that our issues remain on the global development agenda.

We therefore value a multilateral approach to the transformation of the current configurations of distribution and exercise of global power. Together with Sri Lanka, we need to build on our historical relations as nations of the South with strong roots in Bandung that was a precursor to the formation of the Non-Aligned Movement to which we remain committed.

During his opening speech at the launch of the New Asian-African Strategic Partnership in Indonesia last year, President Mbeki stated:

We reiterate our conviction that the Spirit of Bandung, the core principles of which are solidarity, friendship and cooperation, continues to be a solid, relevant and effective foundation for fostering better relations among Asian and African countries and resolving global issues of common concern.

Despite all this progress, we continue to face the daunting challenge to eradicate the poverty and underdevelopment that afflict millions of our peoples, which coexist side by side with the availability of sufficient resources in the global economy to make poverty history.

Thus, on 23 April 2005, African and Asian Leaders gathered in Jakarta, Indonesia committed themselves to this strategic partnership by declaring that:

We emphasize the importance of multilateral approaches to international relations and the need for countries to strictly abide by the principles of international law, in particular the Charter of the United Nations. As Asia and Africa represent the majority in the community of nations, we reaffirm the need to support and strengthen multilateralism in order to address global issues, including reforming multilateral institutions.

We therefore value platforms such as the Indian Ocean Rim-Association for Regional Co-operation (IOR-ARC), which is a unique tripartite economic co-operation mechanism for collaboration between government, business and academic sectors.

I had the honour to attend this meeting in your beautiful country in 2004 during your tenure as a country. I enjoyed the warmth and vibrancy of the Sri Lankan society and wish to encourage more people-to-people contacts to build more understanding and sharing of experiences between on our countries.

On a personal note, I would like to congratulate you on your daughter's upcoming wedding in October. On behalf of the government and people of South Africa, I would also like to wish you all the best in your future endeavours and trust that we will always have an ambassador in you.

We look forward to seeing you on our shores as a tourist very soon.

I thank you.