UN General Assembly
1982

seen as an important area of co-operation and we must prevent man from destroying the basis of his own existence by recklessly polluting the environment and exhausting valuable resources. Much important work has to be done in this respect. 163. Finally, we must not forget that the growth of the world population can overtake and nullify all our efforts to ensure greater international economic stability. 164. The Third United Nations Conference on the Law of the Sea has made an historic attempt to develop an international regime for the use of the world's oceans. The Federal Government played an active and constructive part in this. Admittedly, the results have not lived up to our expectations in every respect. In addition to certain satisfactory provisions, there are arrangements on future deep-sea mining which make it hard Mr us to decide in favor of signing the Con¬vention. We find it most regrettable that the Con¬ference was not able to produce results capable of commanding a consensus. The Federal Government will take a decision on whether to sign the Convention after careful consideration