UN General Assembly
1987

If we act within the framework of established norms and in consultation with the people, using the most appropriate machinery to secure their effective and free participation, that will reduce domestic tensions and the chance of conflicts among our countries and inevitably lead to mutual respect, which we are entitled to expect. Instead of accepting confrontation, we must act to establish methods that allow dialogue to lead to an understanding of our problems and to their solution. That is the meaning of "active neutrality": the rejection of armed conflict and active efforts to secure peace through concerted effort. An international policy such as the one we have defined, the backbone of which is recognition of the realities peculiar to each country and the search for accords designed to establish regional consensus, requires a permanent instrument for implementation of the proposed method of concerted effort to establish the bases for Central American political unity, which would be the historical consequence, in the medium or longer term, of such a process.