“I stand here as one of you - a representative of the people; I come to you with the greetings of 1.25 billion people of a nation, linked to Australia by the great Indian Ocean; by our connected history and our many shared inheritances- and, even more by our deeply interlinked destinies. And, today I have come to unite in spirit, as we were once by geography - spirit that is fed by many stirring stories of human success and sacrifice.

This morning, Prime Minister and I honoured our soldiers, who 100 years ago made the supreme sacrifice together in the battle of Gallipoli. The man who designed this beautiful capital of Canberra, Walter Burley Griffin, lies buried in the old city of Lucknow in India.

More than 150 years ago, an Australian novelist and lawyer John Lang fought the legal battle for a brave Indian freedom fighter, the Queen of Jhansi, Rani Laxmi Bai against the British East India Company in India`s first War of Independence. He also lies buried in the Indian hill town of Mussoorie.

The statue of Gandhi in Canberra is a symbol of our shared values.

We celebrate the legend of Bradman and the class of Tendulkar together.

We are impressed by Australian speed as you are charmed by the Indian spin Until of course Shane Warne came along!

But, above all, we are united by the ideals of democracy.

Today, as I stand in this temple of democracy, I consider nations such as ours to be blessed, because democracy offers the best opportunity for the human spirit to flourish, because we have the freedom to choose, the right to speak and the power to remove – and, for us in politics, with no option but to leave with grace.