UN General Assembly
1986

Whatever the particular economic, political or social concerns of Member States may be, they all live under the threat of global disaster posed by the nuclear confrontation of the super-Powers. Unfortunately, the nuclear dilemma does not involve the security and status of the nuclear Powers alone: it involves the survival of civilization, of mankind and possibly of our planet. My Government hopes that the two super-Powers are at last prepared to talk to each other at the highest level and to make serious commitments to nuclear disarmament, to the prohibition of new weapons of mass destruction and to the preservation of outer space for peaceful purposes. In conclusion, I wish to reaffirm my Government's belief in the enduring validity of the principles and purposes of the United Nations We share the concern of many States over the emergence of a tendency to downgrade the importance of the world body and even to undermine its authority and effectiveness.