UN General Assembly
1972

176. The United Nations, of course, has an immense potential for constructive work in every field of international activity, and it is one of the most lamentable facts of our time that this potential has never been fully used. The great Powers have never given to the United Nations the full measure of faith and support which it needs and deserves in order to attain the great goals of the Charter. During this general debate this Assembly hall has resounded again and again with commendatory references to vital prospects of detente, historic summit meetings, bold initiatives to inaugurate an era of negotiation in lieu of confrontation, and actual agreements on nuclear weapons control. And all of these, sad to admit, have come to pass outside the United Nations auspices. When it should be playing a central role in the efforts to achieve one of the primary aims of the Charter, the United Nations has been shunted off to to the periphery of major developments in the field of international security.