UN General Assembly
1970

26. Regional agreements are, at this juncture in the life of nations, the indispensable complement of the theoretical and furthermore inoperative worldwide collective security system. Colombia expounded this view at the San Francisco Conference, and we reiterate it, after decades of lack of action, unresolved crises and downright failures. We can now appreciate the historic significance of the debate at San Francisco. We did not want for warnings as to the general collective security system, entrusted as it was to a minority group of Great Powers in the Security Council, each of them having obtained the power to paralyse any decision of this body.