UN General Assembly
1979

172. The prospects for peace and stability in Southeast Asia were further dimmed when, on 17 February 1979, Chinese troops made an armed incursion into Vietnamese territory. The ASEAN countries were gravely concerned that the fighting would escalate into a larger conflagration involving other Powers from outside the region. They therefore sought yet again to end the fighting by making their appeals to the parties concerned in the United Nations. Their efforts were finally expressed in the form of a draft resolution submitted for consideration by the Security Council on 16 March of this year. The operative paragraphs of that draft resolution called on the parties to the conflicts to cease all hostilities forthwith, to withdraw their forces to their own countries and to settle their disputes by peaceful means. The draft also appealed to Powers outside the region to exercise the utmost restraint and to refrain from any acts that might lead to a further escalation of the conflicts in Indo-China. When it was put to the vote it again received the support of 13 member countries, but failed to be adopted owing to the negative vote of the same permanent member. The fact that the ASEAN countries chose to deplore both the Chinese incursion into Viet Nam and the Vietnamese intervention in Kampuchea fully and clearly demonstrated their earnest desire to remain neutral in the conflicts, from which position they hoped to be able to exert a stabilizing influence on the developments in the region.