UN General Assembly
2000

which marks international relations, it is that of combating poverty, ignorance and epidemics. Effective and unified tackling of the problem of sustainable development in the third world necessarily entails settling the problem of debt, reviving cooperation for development, promoting investments 21 and opening up the markets of the North to the products and commodities of the South. We are meeting today for the last session of the General Assembly in our century, which has been marked by many events, a century in which the horror of destructive wars was mingled with the joy of peace and détente, a century marked by a struggle between hope and resignation, where it became evident that people are at once capable of the most abject acts and the most useful kinds of actions. We leave behind a century and usher in another, hopeful that humankind will learn from the past and will demonstrate the necessary determination to avoid making the same mistakes, for which we have paid such a high price.