UN General Assembly
1954

128. If there had been time I would have referred to the main problem of the view my Government holds in regard to its own foreign policy. We believe that each of these issues on which there are differences should be matters on which each country ought to make up its own mind; in that way it would be possible for different systems to live together. I do not want to use the word “coexistence” for the simple reason that it has been much jeered at. But what is coexistence? It is simply the working out of the Charter; that is all. The Charter says: “. . . to save succeeding generations from the scourge of war ... to reaffirm faith in fundamental human rights, in the dignity and worth of the human person ... to promote social progress ... to ensure . . . that armed force shall not be used ... to employ international machinery . . .” And, according to Article 1, paragraph 4, one of the purposes of the United Nations is to be “a centre for harmonizing the actions of nations . ..”. There is nothing new in this idea; it is only a question of our carrying out the principles.