UN General Assembly
1976

91. There is one more problem, the problem of disarmament, regarding which there has been, unfortunately, little progress. As I said at the last session, I would emphasize that to make detente an irreversible process it should extend to all geographical areas and at the same time that it should include disarmament measures. I then suggested that the Secretary-General of the United Nations should be called upon to submit concrete proposals and recommendations in regard to a more positive role for the United Nations in the field of disarmament, and I once again stress the necessity, as a matter of priority, for the revitalization of the United Nations in this field. Immediate steps in this field seem to be imperative if not for expanding detente and the creation of larger areas of peace, leading towards the elimination of all sources of war and conflict, at least because of the compulsions of the alarming world-wide sales and gifts of arms, combined with competition in the acquisition and refinement of categories of weapons. In my opinion, a United Nations subsidiary organization deeply committed to the early establishment of disarmament could also function as a monitor or watchdog to speed up the half-hearted efforts of the big Power blocs towards mutual reduction of arms.