UN General Assembly
1988

We understand and have shared the frustrations many countries feel at the glacial pace of progress towards nuclear disarmament, but we do not believe that frustration is well served by bringing into question the Non-Proliferation Treaty itself. Does any nation really believe that its security or the safety of the world would be served by a world in which yet more States had nuclear weapons? Further nuclear proliferation would bring about an even more desperately dangerous world than the one we now inhabit. So we appeal once more to those countries that have not yet become parties to the Treaty to do so without delay. And, remembering - as we always must - the terms of the compact that lies behind the Non-Proliferation Treaty, in which the nuclear-weapon States undertook to negotiate nuclear disarmament in good faith and at an early date, we appeal once again to those existing nuclear-weapon States to accelerate the progress they have been making towards the elimination of those weapons.