UN General Assembly
1992

General Assembly, will be crucial to the follow-up. The Assembly must create an effective instrument to ensure that the impetus built up at Rio is not dissipated and lost. To conclude, for the medium and long term we need to turn hope into reality. In the short term, time after time, in place after place, we must bring hope to what is already a grim reality. The legacy of the cold war is a mixed one. In facing it, the international community must be realistic, because history cannot be denied, cannot be uprooted. The solving of problems which have their roots deep in the centuries is a slow, frustrating business. After the brief gleam of optimism in 1989 and 1990, when all seemed easy, we are now more realistic. Progress towards a more decent, orderly world will never be without effort. Our best hope is to take two steps forward for each step back. Even that imperfect progress will require the rapid strengthening of our institutions and in particular of the family of institutions called the