The text of the speech made by His Majesty Sultan Qaboos bin Said at the grand celebration held on the first  anniversary of Renaissance, organised by the Ministry of Information in Ruwi on Friday, July 23, 1971.

I thank Almighty Allah for giving us prosperity and directing us towards the right path and Peace be Upon Prophet Muhammad.

Our dear Omani people, we are pleased today for celebrating together the first anniversary of the new era, which the Omani people received with great joy and absolute support.

Wherever we go in our dear country our generous people receive us with acts of loyalty and honesty, and we are thankful for that gesture.  

This gives us motivation to undertake more efforts to raise the living standards of our people and take all steps towards reforms in all the fields.  

In doing so, we are guided by the light of our good Sharia, asking Allah to turn what we are doing into prosperity and blessing for all.

You have, of course, felt the achievements and gains that have happened to this good people and country over the first year of our young era.  

Sincere efforts and intentions guide this country towards securing a high place that it deserves.

We do not intend to assess the achievements and gains because we believe that serious work is the only way through which we can achieve our goals and objectives.

We refrain from the propaganda and giving exaggerated promises because we, here in Oman, are guided by humble behaviour and by our good Islamic religion.

However, we mention to you our basic principles for our internal and foreign policies.

Our internal plan is to build our country and to provide its people with good standard of living.

This is a goal that will not be achieved without the participation of the people through shouldering responsibility and nation-building.

We have left open the doors for our citizens to reach this goal. We shall work in a serious manner to establish a democratic and just rule in our country, within the framework of our Arab Omani reality, our social traditions and the teachings of Islam.

No doubt, the nation-building process is difficult and needs more efforts and sacrifices. Difficult as it is, we shall shoulder this burden with patience and continue working with determination and firmness.

Here, we have to talk about a subject that is giving us all sincere pain and disturbance.

I mean the subject of the southern state, Dhofar. We are sad because as we celebrate this day, our brothers there are suffering aggression, terrorism, and destruction inflicted by foreign elements, opportunists, mercenaries and atheists.

We would like to make this clear — Dhofar is a part that could not be divided away from the Sultanate of Oman.

It is a part of this dear land as exactly as Muscat and Nizwa. All should know that we will pay dearly and offer lives for the sake of returning security and peace to this beloved part of the nation and for the sake of providing it with the good living standards enjoyed by Omanis throughout the Sultanate. And that is coming, and is coming fast, with the help of Allah.  

As in the Arab field, we have concentrated  efforts in developing our relations with our sister countries and taking up our natural place within the Arab fold.

This will enable us to contribute towards the Arab efforts and support the Arab just cause, notably the Palestine cause.

We regret the stand of some of our sister countries towards us, by taking certain stand concerning our wish to join the Arab League.

This will, however, not prevent us from solving obstacles, as it will not be possible to ignore the voice of a whole people.

On the world arena, our foreign policy is based on positive neutralism and non-alignment.

This means working towards strengthening the ties of friendship with all the states of the world without any discrimination and taking steps to establish relations with them.

This should be based on mutual respect, within the framework of the charter of the United Nations, which we have applied to join as a member.  

As all free, independent and sovereign states, we are keen to contribute towards achieving peace, justice and prosperity worldwide.

Our dear people, we congratulate you on this happy occasion and we promise you to lead this dear nation to the road of social reform and comprehensive growth. We call upon Allah to assist us.

Thank you and wish you a happy anniversary, with joy and rejoicing.

Peace be upon you.