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Your Royal Highness, Prince Sultan Abdul Aziz Al-Saud, Second Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Defence and Aviation of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, on behalf of my delegation it is an honour to welcome you and your distinguished delegation from the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia to South Africa.

Not so long ago I had the good fortune of visiting your beautiful country, and the warm and friendly manner in which I was received there will not easily be forgotten. I want to thank you again for the hospitality that was extended to me and my delegation in your friendly country.

I am very pleased that we have this opportunity to reciprocate that hospitality and I hope that your visit here will be a resounding success.

Today the strong ties that are developing between Saudi Arabia and South Africa have strengthened even further. A number of important discussion between officials from both our countries have already taken place, discussions which are set to bear fruit. There are a number of important areas around which co-operation and partnership between our countries can grow and flourish. And I am sure that as we continue working together we will identify more of them.

It is important that as relations strengthen we are able to build a healthy and equal partnership, which benefits the people of both our countries, and I hope great hopes for the possibilities that lie ahead.

At the dawn of the new millennium the world is becoming a smaller place. Like the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, South Africa is a peaceful nation which seeks to build friendly relations with countries the world over. We know that peace and security are only built when the people of sovereign nations have faith in the ability of their governments to safeguard them against possible threats.

We believe that this is a perspective which you share with us and as such we are working towards the signing of an agreement of co-operation. This agreement will allow us to set up structures and mechanisms to take forward our mutual interests in this regard.

I would like to thank you once again for honouring us with your presence in South Africa albeit for such a short period of time. I hope that this marks the start of many more such visits to our country and perhaps one day you will be able to take some time off your busy schedule in order to spend some leisure time here.

Your Royal Highness, South Africa has a lot to offer to her friends.

I thank you.

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