UN General Assembly
1975

80. . Now I turn to disarmament. The Secretary- General, in his report, has reminded us of our responsibility for disarmament. Every year the nations pile up more and more arms. Every year the arms bill grows larger. Every year the capacity for destruction more frightening. In some parts of the world such as the Middle East, competition for arms is never ceasing. Hardly any continent is exempt from the pressure. No one who cares for the progress of the human race towards decent standards of living can help but be appalled at the enormous waste of resources on weapons of destruction. A number of countries, some of whom are among the poorest, are now spending as much as 10 per cent of their gross national product for military purposes. What a boost it could give to the world's hopes if all of us could agree to limit to a maximum of even 5 per cent the amount of our gross national product we allocate for defense. This would presuppose that countries would move step by step to such a figure and would need to enter into serious multilateral negotiations with one another for reductions in their military establishments. That is indeed what we are doing in the negotiations that are now beginning on force reductions in Central Europe. If these negotiations could be paralleled in other regions of the world it would be a hopeful beginning.