Sri Lanka, 1969

125. The delegation of

Ceylon is taking this opportunity of adding its own tribute

to the many that have already, in the course of the general

debate, been paid to the Honourable Angie Brooks on her

election as President of the twenty-fourth session of the

General Assembly. Although the cloistered woman has long

been almost a social symbol of Asia and Africa, it is those

two continents that have given the General Assembly of the

United Nations its only two women Presidents. Like the

illustrious daughter of India, Srimati Vijaya Laxmi Pandit,

who preceded her in the enjoyment of this distinction, the

Honourable Angie Brooks has to her credit a record of

service to her country and to the international community

which makes her a most worthy recipient of the honour

that this Assembly has conferred on her. In doing so, the

United Nations has done honour to her country and to the

entire African people, whose problems and trials, whose

hopes, yearnings, aspirations and strivings figure so

prominently in our deliberations within the United Nations

family, and which are so close to the hearts and minds of all

those who believe that all men are born equal and are

equally entitled to freedom and the right to determine their

own destiny. On behalf of the Government and delegation

of Ceylon, and on my own behalf, I offer the Honourable

Angie Brooks our cordial congratulations on her election as.

President of the General Assembly, and at the same time

should like to assure her of our unstinting co-operation in

the discharge of the arduous functions that she has assumed.

126. It was with a profound feeling of sadness that we of

the Ceylon delegation heard the news of the death of His

Excellency Dr. Emilio Arenales, the able and talented

Minister for Foreign Affairs of Guatemala, who presided

over this Assembly last year. Despite a grave illness which

he bore with admirable fortitude and composure, he did

not flinch from his responsibilities but carried his task

through to its appointed end. His death a few months after

the close of the twenty-third session brought to an

untimely end a career already marked by brilliant achievement

and full of ample promise. To the delegation of

Guatemala we extend our condolences in the loss that their

country has suffered.

127. We are indebted once again to the Secretary-General,

His Excellency U Thant, for a penetrating and candid

analysis of the international situation contained in the

introduction to his annual report on the work of the

organization [A/7601/Add.1]. The lonely eminence of the

thirty-eighth floor provides, in a spiritual and moral sense, a

view of the world that is denied to others too deeply

involved in its conflicts and aberrations. The Organization

can only at great peril submit the Secretary-General to the

fate of Cassandra. My delegation would like to pay tribute

to him for the patience, zeal and unfaltering faith with

which he continues to serve this Organization and the

highest of all causes: peace and progress.

128. We meet at a time when several important anniversaries

coincide. It is 5O years since the doctrine of

self-determination for subject peoples was enunciated, and

which, while first finding expression in the redrawing of the

boundaries of Europe and in the birth of many new

nations, provided the inspiration and impetus for by far the

greatest adventure of our times: the liquidation of colonial rule.

129. Twenty-five years have passed since the establishment

of the United Nations. It is nearly 10 years since the

General Assembly adopted its historic Declaration on the

Granting of Independence to Colonial Countries and

Peoples in resolution 1514 (XV) of 14 December 1960. We

are also reaching the end of the First United Nations

Development Decade and preparing for the inauguration of the Second.

130. Those last three anniversaries should serve as a

reminder and a warning of the imperious challenge that the

three most pressing problems of our times — international

peace and security, the emancipation of subject peoples,

and the economic advancement of developing countries — present

to the United Nations.

131. We celebrate at the same time yet another anniversary,

surpassing the rest in its relevance to the objectives

and purposes of the United Nations and the problems it has

yet to solve. I refer to the centenary of the birth of

Mohandas Gandhi, who, by precept and example, demonstrated

to the world the efficacy of satyagraha as a weapon

against oppression, discrimination and injustice, and whose

life and teachings have left an indelible imprint on the

memory and conscience of man.

132. To us at the United Nations the most important

incident in the historical process was the establishment of

our Organization, the twenty-fifth anniversary of which

falls next year. This is the most appropriate time, therefore,

to survey contemporary history, to reflect on the experiences

of the past, to examine our own and the United

Nations’ achievements and shortcomings and to seek the

means of redeeming our lost opportunities. Elaborate

preparations are being made to celebrate — not in the festive

sense, we hope — the twenty-fifth anniversary of the

establishment of the United Nations. Apart from the visible and

symbolic displays that are customary on such occasions,

there is another form of commemoration, devoid of

pageantry and panache, which the Members of the Organization

should consider. There is a need for a renewal of

faith in the principles and purposes of the Organization and

for an honest pledge to make a greater effort to develop the

United Nations into the living force for peace and international

security that it was meant to be. Any other form

of celebration would only make more obvious our reluctance

to face hard facts — a habit that seems to have become

deeply ingrained in the Organization as a whole.

133. It is easy enough to indulge in platitudinous assessments

that the Organization has not failed using the

argument that its continued existence refutes that charge,

but survival is not a sign of success just as much as lack of

complete success need not necessarily mean total failure. If

we are to hold out to future generations even the remotest

hope of realizing the purposes for which the United Nations

was brought into being, we have to find the means by

which nations and their peoples can free themselves from

the shackles of avarice, mistrust and arrogance.

134. The twenty-fifth anniversary of the founding of the

United Nations is also a most suitable occasion for a review

of the Charter and the procedures of the United Nations.

We have had enough time and have acquired enough

experience to judge ourselves.

135. It has been stated here on the highest authority that

a section of the membership is too prone to the belief that

the mere passage of resolutions, actuated more by emotion

than by a sense of realism, is futile and serves only to

imperil the prestige of the Organization. This, in our

opinion, is not the most serious defect in the Organization

nor should only one section of the membership be thus

singled out for censure. Realism does not mean patient

resignation in the sight of intolerable injustice. Emotion is a

poor description of the human reaction to the repeated

frustration of all efforts at curing such injustice.

136. The real damage to the prestige and dignity of the

Organization comes from the practice of adopting declarations,

resolutions and even treaties with all due solemnity

and of immediately thereafter pursuing policies which are

in flat contradiction of the provisions of such instruments.

137. The best examples are the General Assembly resolution

[1762 (XVII)] of 1962 condemning all nuclear-weapon

tests, the August 1963 partial test-ban Treaty with

its firm promise to seek the end of underground tests and

finally the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear

Weapons of 1968 which was pressed on the membership of

the United Nations with astonishing vigour and speed

mainly on the assurance contained in its article VI. The

world still awaits some sign of the effective measures

relating to the cessation of the nuclear arms race and to

nuclear disarmament which were promised in that article.

We cannot be content with declarations by the two

opposing sides that they are ready for these negotiations.

All we are aware of is that there is growing disillusionment

among us regarding the good intentions expressed in article

VI of the non-proliferation Treaty and in the earlier

agreements. This disillusionment is sharpened by the

realization that tests are being conducted for the perfection

of even more elaborate and fiendishly destructive nuclear

weapons and devices and that the partial test-ban Treaty

has been quite ineffective in stopping the development of

offensive nuclear capacity. The international community

can be excused if it has doubts regarding the value of the

assurances repeated by the nuclear Powers of a cessation of

the nuclear arms race. One nuclear Power alone — the United

Kingdom — deserves credit for having ratified the non-proliferation

Treaty with commendable promptitude.

138. Along with the review of the Charter, some of the

procedures of the Organization call for fresh examination.

One example that comes to mind is the established

procedure of ending every discussion with a resolution. Its

futility is most apparent in the Security Council where the

provisions of a resolution at the very moment of its

adoption are given contradictory interpretations which

completely vitiate it and render it nugatory. This

admittedly is 2 symptom of a general malaise afflicting

international relations.

139. We hope that the twenty-fifth anniversary of the

United Nations will also see the attainment of real

universality in its membership with the seating of

representatives of the People’s Republic of China in the United

Nations as the only legitimate representatives of that

country and its people. The restoration of the lawful rights

of the people of China will repair an injustice and retrieve a

folly of 20 years’ duration. It will also bring within reach of

fulfilment any hope that remains of real progress in

disarmament or in the elimination of the nuclear danger.

Without the agreement and co-operation of the People’s

Republic of China no progress in these fields can be

achieved. It should be abundantly clear by now that the

representatives of the People’s Republic of China can be

seated in the United Nations only through the exclusion of

the representatives of the Chiang Kai-shek regime. It is the

United Nations that has imposed on itself this dangerous

and unrewarding isolation from the people of China.

140. The policy of decolonization has been pursued with a

measure of success but the task is far from complete. In

what we hope is its death throes colonialism has assumed

the evil visage of apartheid and racialism. Those regimes

which pursue these policies must know that they cannot

long prevail despite the comfort and the support they

receive directly or indirectly, clandestinely or openly, from

certain sources.

141. The First United Nations Development Decade was a

great endeavour inaugurated in 1960 with almost evangelistic

fervour but ending in the melancholy realization that

those early hopes have been far from attained.

142. Disarmament, after years of discussion, has produced

an unsatisfactory and inadequate test-ban Treaty and an

equally unsatisfactory and no less inadequate Treaty on the

Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons which has yet failed

to secure the ratifications necessary to bring it into effect.

Scientific research and tests continue to be conducted with

the same hectic desire to establish an absolute superiority

over others without any diminution of the quality or

quantity of weapons of mass destruction. The arms race is

only the outward manifestation of the mistrust and

hostility that exist between nations. It is not by slowing

down the arms race or by reducing the volume or

destructive capacity of weapons that peace can be established

and international security ensured but rather by the

eradication of the factors that create mistrust and hostility.

As the Foreign Minister of Italy very aptly observed this

morning, war must not be considered solely as the result of

lack of military equilibrium. We feel it to be incumbent

upon the major Powers and indeed on all States to search

for a bold and enlightened strategy for peace and for ways

and means of establishing and implementing the principles

of friendly relations and co-operation among States regardless

of their ideological foundations:

143. The same problems continue to plague the world

with varying prospects of mitigation or settlement — the

conflict in the Middle East, the war in Viet-Nam, apartheid

and colonialism.

144. More than two years have passed since the Middle

East war of June 1967 and it is almost two years since the

Security Council unanimously adopted its resolution

242 (1967) of 22 November 1967. That resolution was

acclaimed almost universally as a carefully balanced one but

there is still no definite prospect of its implementation.

Tension in the area grows unabated, bringing the world

time and again perilously close to the brink of war and

disaster. The Secretary-General has in the clearest possible

terms stated that the fighting in the Canal Zone constitutes

virtually a state of active war. His own observation forces,

unarmed and in the line of direct, fire, are exposed to

intolerable dangers, but continue to face them with a

heroism which goes unnoticed in a world where the only

badge of honour is a weapon.

145. Israel’s failure to withdraw from the occupied

territories not only implies a rejection of the proposition

fundamental to the settlement contemplated in Security

Council resolution 242 (1967) that acquisition of territory

by war is inadmissible, but is an obstacle to the creation of

the only conditions in which a just and lasting peace can be

discussed. The use of occupied territory as a form of

hostage in international negotiations is contrary to the

spirit of the Charter.

146. Concern has quite properly been expressed here over

attacks on airports and the hijacking of aircraft. These are

not, however, the most serious features of this problem. We

do not condone such attacks on innocent persons. They are

to be deplored. But in scale, in consequences, and in the

degree of force employed they are diminutive in comparison

with the regular and systematic Israeli attacks on Arab

territory and the trail of death and destruction that these

attacks leave. The Israeli contention is that these reprisals

are in retaliation for the actions of Arab resistance groups.

There are many States Members in this Assembly whose

peoples have suffered the indignity of foreign occupation

and have found in organized resistance the only hope of

deliverance when no help can come from outside. Such

resistance is a matter of right until the alien trespasser is

evicted. Are these demonstrations of resistance, conducted

under the vigilance of an occupying Power, in the shadow

of overwhelming strength, and at the certain risk of

draconian punishment amounting to total devastation of

property and complete evacuation, to be treated as

violations of the cease-fire and as a pretext for terrorizing the

population of the occupied territories? Resistance of this

nature by the population of an occupied territory is a

natural and understandable reaction. A distinction must be

drawn between such acts of resistance and the furious and

frenzied reprisals for which they serve as a mere excuse.

147. Events which in other circumstances should have no

bearing on the Middle East dispute tend to increase its

gravity and enhance the risk of war. I refer to the recent

fire at the Al-Aqsa Mosque which formed the subject of

discussion in the Security Council during September of this

year and ended characteristically with a resolution that was

remarkable more for the support it received than for its

relevance to the issue or for its contribution to a settlement.

The Security Council resolution of 15 September

1969 [271 (1969)] regrettably, in our opinion, skirted the

real issue. The fire at the Al-Aqsa Mosque was neither the

direct nor the indirect consequence of Israeli measures,

which the Security Council has refused to recognize, to

change the status of Jerusalem. It was not the status of

Jerusalem that was the point at issue but the ever present

danger of a grave breach of the peace and of a renewal of

war inherent in a situation that can only be described as the

illegal usurpation of temporal power through war.

148. The cause of peace in the Middle East will not be

served by drawing red herrings like the Security Council

resolution of 15 September 1969 across the trail, but rather

by a determined effort on the part of the United Nations,

and especially the major Powers, to concentrate on the

substance of Security Council resolution 242 (1967) of 22

November 1967, and to endeavour to translate it into

action. The two essential features of that resolution are:

first, that Israel must withdraw from all Arab territories in

accordance with the principle that acquisition of territory

by war is inadmissible; and secondly, that there must be a

just settlement of the Palestine Arab refugee problem.

149. Despite the numerous United Nations resolutions

reaffirming the right of the refugees to return to their

homeland or to receive compensation — resolutions which

have received overwhelming support — Israel, far from

complying with them, has taken action to evict Arab residents

from the occupied territories. As we see it, the Palestine

refugee problem is at the heart of the Middle East question.

There can be no approach to a settlement unless the four

major Powers, in the discharge of their primary responsibility

as permanent members of the Security Council, make

it clear to Israel that the Security Council resolution of 22

November 1967 alone contains all those elements that can

bring about a lasting peace, and that it is not subject to any

conditions such as direct negotiations, recognition and

peace treaties which are not specified in it, but may well follow.

150. Peace cannot be ensured in the Middle East by the

redrawing of boundaries, but by a spirit of reconciliation

and tolerance on both sides, by a recognition of the right of

all parties to exist in peace and security and by a permanent

solution of the problem of the Palestinian refugees through

full and fair restitution to those dispossessed and displaced

by the act of partition of Palestine. There are no boundaries

that are secure while injustice prevails. The four major

Powers have both the duty and the capacity to bring peace

to the Middle East and to avert a conflagration that could

envelop the world. It rests with them to insist, first, on

Israel’s withdrawal from the territories it now occupies by

the anachronistic right of conquest and, thereafter, on the

implementation of the rest of the terms of the resolution

by all the parties concerned. This can in no sense of the

term be described as an imposition of a settlement on

sovereign Powers.

151. In Viet-Nam, after years of what would now, in

gloomy retrospect, seem to have been senseless slaughter

and destruction, the exemplary and unexceptionable principle

that the people of Viet-Nam must be left free to

determine their own internal affairs and choose their own

political system was ultimately vindicated when the Paris

negotiations were instituted in March 1968. The Paris talks

were possible because the combatants finally realized that a

political settlement was the last hope and that this could be

achieved only if the affairs of Viet-Nam were discussed by

the parties immediately concerned.

152. However, after 18 months of talks, peace like a

wayward wanton taunts the negotiators in Paris and

continues to elude their seemingly avid grasp. The

circumstances were never more favourable for a settlement, and it

would be tragic if the opportunity were frittered away by

excessive obduracy on the part of either side or by a failure

to grasp the realities of the situation.

153. The reduction in the United States commitment of

forces in Viet-Nam and the hope of further reductions in

the level of foreign participation in the war are an

encouraging sign and must be recognized as a contribution,

however small or isolated it may seem to some, towards the

cessation of the conflict and the creation of conditions in

which the covenants of peace could be discussed. If a

military victory is beyond the reach of either party and if

peace cannot be secured except through the imposition of

terms of surrender by one or the other, the only alternative

is a political compromise on terms which would recognize

unequivocally the right of the Viet-Namese people to

determine their own future and to choose for themselves

the type of government they want.

154. The composition of the representation at the Paris

talks is a clear recognition of the position of the National

Liberation Front in the South. Their representation in any

interim administration in the South would be a mere

acceptance of the realities of the situation. The indispensable

ingredients of a settlement are a cease-fire, a temporary

reorganization in the administration of South Viet-Nam

to make it more representative of the will of the

people, the withdrawal of foreign troops and free elections.

Thereafter the final unification of the country would be the

sole responsibility of the leaders of the people of both parts

of that divided nation. We would appeal to all the parties

concerned to adhere scrupulously to the principles and

provisions of the Geneva Agreements of 1954.

155. In considering the problems of colonialism, apartheid

and racialism careful attention should be paid to the

Lusaka Manifesto on Southern Africa proclaimed by the

Fifth Summit Conference of East and Central African

States held at Lusaka from 14 to 16 April 1969. There we

have a testament of human equality, human dignity and

self-determination expressed with sober and statesmanlike

restraint and moderation. The Lusaka Manifesto asks for

only one gesture from the white communities of South

Africa — that they declare their commitment to these principles.

If this commitment is made, Africa can be spared the

painful agony and pitiless violence of racial conflict. There

is no lack of assurance in the Lusaka Manifesto of the

determination of its signatories to combine with all groups,

with patience and understanding in building an Africa

where all races will be equal, discrimination outlawed,

vengeance eschewed and the brotherhood of man exalted.

The world will anxiously await the answer of the Governments

of Portugal and South Africa, and of the white rebels

of Southern Rhodesia. If they fail to give a favourable

response to the Lusaka Manifesto, they will be answerable

to all humanity for the consequences.

156. Attention has been drawn to the provisions of

Chapter VIII of the Charter regarding the possibility of

recourse to regional arrangements or agencies for dealing

with such matters relating to the maintenance of international

peace and security as are appropriate for regional

action. In this context a system of collective security for

Asia has been specially mentioned. It is a truism that

international peace and security can be ensured only if in

their international relations all Governments accept and

observe the principles of peaceful coexistence between

States irrespective of their social or economic systems,

respect for the sovereignty and territorial integrity of all

States, renunciation of the threat or use of force in the

settlement of disputes between countries, abstention from

intervention or interference in the internal affairs of

countries, and promotion of mutual interests and co-operation

between States. Those are the five cardinal precepts

which have come to be known as the Pancha Shila of

international relations. They constitute the essence of the

United Nations Charter. They were further elaborated in

the Bandung Declaration of April 1955 on the promotion

of world peace and co-operation. That Declaration contains

all the relevant commandments for a stable international

order. We need only to summon the will and the determination

to adhere to those principles.

157. Schemes of collective security become necessary only

because these principles are ignored. The delegation of

Ceylon looks askance at the idea of dividing the world into

regions for the organization of collective security. The idea

of collective security has always been associated with the

organization of the means of defence against possible

attack. The best examples are NATO and the Warsaw Pact.

Others are the South-East Asia Treaty Organization and the

Central Treaty Organization. The Bandung Declaration was

resolutely opposed to such schemes.

158. A collective security scheme in the military sense, as

far as Asia is concerned, would be designed to serve two

purposes: to protect any Asian country from outside attack

or to protect any Asian country or group of countries from

attack by a member of the region. Any such scheme of

security would entail the obligation on the part of its

members to make a contribution in the form of armed

forces and armaments and would result in the diversion of a

portion of their meagre resources from economic development

to meet this obligation. At a time when efforts are

being made to ensure the redundancy of such regional pacts

as NATO and the Warsaw Pact, we must question the

prudence of creating a similar scheme for Asia. An Asian

collective security scheme for defence purposes would, if it

embraced all the nations of Asia, be superfluous. If it were

not comprehensive in its membership, it would, far from

promoting security, merely increase insecurity and be a

nuisance. Furthermore, it would be at complete variance

with the principles of non-alignment and, therefore, could

hardly be acceptable to the non-aligned nations of Asia.

159. If, however, the concept of collective security connotes

co-operation between the nations of Asia in trade and

economic development, in cultural promotion and in the

pacific settlement of local disputes and problems, it could

undoubtedly promote security and should be welcomed by

all. It might even enable the continent of Asia to discover

its real identity and, while promoting the material welfare

of its peoples, to undertake a role in international affairs

that would be more in keeping with its priceless moral and

spiritual heritage.

160. While on the subject of Asian security, we must take

note of disturbing trends in the Asian region, including the

Indian Ocean area. The gradual dismantling of the military

establishment of a major Power in that region has led to

speculation on the need for the so-called vacuum to be

filled by other means. We are aware of the installation of

certain logistic arrangements in islands in the Indian Ocean.

Developments of this type are not calculated to promote

security and ease tensions. Many nations in Asia view them

with concern. To seek to prevent such developments within

the Indian Ocean area is not to interfere with the freedom

of the high seas. One of the most precious of all freedoms is

the freedom from fear and that could be ensured if the

Indian Ocean area were declared an area of peace and if all

countries accepted such a declaration and honoured it.

161. The United Nations is on the eve of launching a

Second Development Decade. Profiting by the experience of

the First Development Decade, a strategy for the 70s is

being carefully worked out. One of the vital elements in

this strategy must be the determination of realistic rates of

economic growth for individual nations and for the world

as a whole. These rates must be more than an aspiration.

They must represent not the desirable but the attainable.

They must ensure a proper balance between the needs of

development and the demands of elementary social justice,

ensuring steady progress in that direction. Above all, if the

strategy is to succeed, there must be a firm commitment by

the affluent section of the world to provide the capital

resources and to pursue the financial and economic policies

required for its fulfilment. We do not deny that the

developing nations also have a concomitant obligation. The

report of the Pearson Commission comes at a very

opportune moment. It contains many valuable recommendations.

We trust that it will receive the serious attention that it deserves.

162. An important aspect of the problem of development

is external finance. Ceylon’s experience has shown that

improvement in the gross national product can come

entirely or largely through increases in production for

domestic use, but along with a steady and serious decline in

external resources. Although Ceylon succeeded in 1968

even in exceeding the growth rate of 5 per cent set as the

target for the First Development Decade, the sharp fall in

the export price of our main export commodity, tea,

drastically reduced our import capacity. A growth rate can

be illusory and even precarious if a country’s import

capacity is not maintained and strengthened by stability in

its export prices and by an improvement in such prices.

Where the increase in the gross national product is due

largely to agricultural production for internal needs but is

accompanied by a marked reduction of import capacity,

the diversification of the economy through the development

of industry is rendered almost impossible. We trust

that the strategy for the Second Development Decade will

provide an answer to this problem. We have referred to only

one of the many problems of development.

163. We welcome the agreement just reached within the

International Monetary Fund to create an addition to

international liquidity in the form of special drawing rights,

which has been somewhat profanely dubbed as paper gold,

amounting to $9.5 thousand million over a period of three

years. If that measure is to serve the purpose of assisting

countries faced with chronic balance-of-payment difficulties

the special drawing rights should not be considered a

mere addition to the wealth of all countries. Treated as

such, the arrangement would only have the effect of

making the rich richer and the poor slightly less poor, but

the relative positions of the developed and developing

countries would remain unaltered. This epoch-making

arrangement can, however, have the effect of stimulating

international trade and economic growth within the developing

sectors of the world if there is a commitment and a

willingness on the part of the developed nations to use their

share of the special drawing rights to augment their

contribution to programmes of economic development in

developing countries by releasing a portion of their special

drawing rights or its equivalent in national currencies,

depending on the mechanics of the operation, for the

purpose of multilateral economic aid to developing countries

through institutions such as the International Development

Association.

164. Over the last two years the question of the reservation

exclusively for peaceful purposes of the sea-bed and

the ocean floor and the subsoil thereof underlying the high

seas beyond the limits of present national jurisdiction, and

the use of their resources in the interests of mankind, has

come to be recognized as occupying a position of special

importance on the agenda of this Assembly. The mineral

wealth of this area is so vast and its potential so tremendous

as to call for serious and urgent attention by the international

community to measures for its orderly and

efficient exploitation and management with special regard

to the interests and needs of the developing countries of the world.

165. By its resolution 2467 A (XXIII) the General

Assembly established a Committee composed of 42

States with a wide mandate to examine the question and

make recommendations to the General Assembly on its

various aspects. These include the legal principles and

norms which would promote international co-operation in

the exploration and use of the sea-bed and the ocean floor

and ensure the exploitation of their resources for the

benefit of mankind, as well as the economic and other

requirements which such a regime should satisfy in order to

meet the interests of humanity as a whole. The Committee

was further empowered to study and make recommendations

to the General Assembly on the reservation of the

area for peaceful purposes, taking into account the studies

and international negotiations being undertaken in the field

of disarmament.

166. Assessments regarding the progress that the Committee

has made during the course of the year will vary. The

criterion of achievement is invariably expectation. Though

progress may be regarded by some as being too slow, it is

necessary to bear in mind the immensity of the technical

problems that still remain to be overcome, the novelty of

some of the legal concepts which the Committee has had to

consider, and the diversity of political and economic

interests involved.

167. Speaking as the representative of my Government

and not in my capacity as Chairman of the Committee, I

should like to state that in the view of my Government the

sea-bed and the ocean floor and the subsoil thereof beyond

the limits of national jurisdiction must be regarded as the

common heritage of mankind. We do not shrink from that

concept because of its novelty. International law, of all

branches of law, cannot remain static but must develop in

response to the changing needs of the international community

whose interests it is intended to serve. It must be

ready to explore and, if necessary, accept new concepts

that will advance the common good. It must reflect the

social conscience of the international community and stand

ready to give effect to the aspirations of the overwhelming

majority of mankind.

168. The General Assembly in resolution 2467 C (XXIII)

dealt with the question of establishing in due time

appropriate international machinery for the promotion of

the exploration and exploitation of the resources of the

area. The nature and form of this machinery and the

programme for its establishment require the most careful attention.

169. Any examination in detail of the various aspects of

the question would not be realistic if there was no

agreement on what constituted the limits of the area of

national jurisdiction. My Government considers it important

that the United Nations should give consideration to

convening, without delay, an international conference to

review the provisions of the 1958 Geneva Convention on

the Continental Shelf, which is of particular significance in

this regard.

170. Meanwhile, it is our hope that all Governments will

co-operate and intensify their efforts within and outside the

Committee on the sea-bed to ensure that the high aims and

purposes set forth in resolution 2467 (XXIII) will be

speedily achieved.

171. A consultative meeting of special representatives of

the Governments of non-aligned countries was held in

Belgrade from 8 to 12 July this year to examine afresh the

role of non-alignment in the present international situation

and to assess the value and function of the policy of

non-alignment in relation to major international issues. It

was in Belgrade in September 1961 that the first Conference

of Heads of State or Government of Non-Aligned

Countries took place. That meeting brought together a

group of countries which were convinced that the cold war

as the political expression of the antagonism between two

power blocs representing diametrically opposed political

and economic ideologies could, with every new accession to

one or the other of the blocs, lead to an intensification of

international tensions with consequences that were too

unpleasant to contemplate.

172. The avoidance of a binding commitment to either of

the blocs through membership of their respective military

organizations was considered a crucial factor. The creation

of a non-aligned group was promoted by the existence of a

large area of common interests shared by those who

assembled in Belgrade in September 1961. Those interests

were concentrated on the very problems which the United

Nations Charter itself recognized as threats to international

peace and security. This community of interests gave the

group a cohesion which could not have been maintained

merely through their aversion to military alliances with the

cold war power blocs. The participants in the Belgrade

meeting had a common concern in the eradication of

colonialism and neo-colonialism, imperialism and racialism

and in general and complete disarmament. They were

pledged to the principle of self-determination and independence

for all subject peoples and to respect for the

sovereignty and territorial integrity of States large and

small. They recognized the importance of peaceful coexistence

between States with different social and economic

systems and they all alike realized the need for international

co-operation to improve standards of living in the

developing countries of the world. They considered these

principles and policies the best prescription for international

peace, and security. They did not subscribe to the

proposition that a country was morally obliged to state its

position between two contending parties.

173. Future generations can best judge whether or not the

existence of the non-aligned group at that point of time was

a real contribution to the easing of tensions and to the

avoidance of a major conflict.

174. In 1964, in Cairo, the principles and policies formulated

at Belgrade were reaffirmed and amplified. Five years

have passed since the Cairo Conference of Heads of State or

Government of Non-Aligned Countries and we are now

engaged in a fresh assessment of the role of non-alignment

in international affairs. There is a need to do so, as the cold

war has lost its original character. While the. two major

camps or blocs that existed in 1961 have moved progressively

towards better mutual understanding and to the

establishment of a modus vivendi, new divisions have

occurred where they were least expected.

175. The non-aligned countries must maintain unremitting

vigilance to ensure that such developments will promote

and to hamper those aims and policies which have been

defined as their common concern and which are identical

with the purposes and principles of the United Nations

Charter.

176. Unencumbered by any commitment to the politics of

power, they can, as the United Nations enters this next

phase of its existence, legitimately presume to lead the

nations of the world in the pursuit of what the

Secretary-General has suggested as an appropriate theme for the

twenty-fifth anniversary of the Organization: peace and progress.