Speech at the Banquet Hosted by President Sukarno on the Occasion of the Eleventh Anniversary of the Founding of the Indonesian Armed Forces (October 5, 1956)

Your Excellency the President, Friends, Comrades:  On this momentous occasion—the eleventh anniversary of the establishment of the Indonesian Armed Forces—I would like first of all to extend my heartfelt congratulations to President Sukarno, the Supreme Commander of the Armed Forces of the Republic of Indonesia. I congratulate the valiant Armed Forces of the Republic of Indonesia on their further achievements in the struggle to realize the ideals of the Indonesian people.

What, then, are the ideals of the Indonesian people? As President Sukarno has made abundantly clear in several important speeches addressed to us recently, they are: the ideal of independence, the ideal of peace, and the ideal of a new world. These very same ideals are also those of the Chinese people. In the quest to realize these ideals, the Chinese people have stood side by side with the Indonesian people on the same front, and we shall forever remain their loyal comrades-in-arms.

Your Excellency, for the past six days you have witnessed the warm welcome and deep affection with which the Chinese people have received you. Your visit has brought our two peoples closer than ever before. Tomorrow you will depart from Beijing, and soon thereafter you will leave China altogether. Although thousands of kilometers will once again separate us, our hearts—indeed, the hearts of our two nations—will remain closely united.

I propose: Let us drink to the everlasting friendship between our two peoples, and to the health of His Excellency President Sukarno, Supreme Commander of the Armed Forces of the Republic of Indonesia!

Printed in the People’s Daily, October 6, 1956.