UN General Assembly
1971

54. The Assembly must also arrest the continuing deterioration of the United Nations financial position, which, as the Secretary-General has pointed out [A/8401/Add.lJ, has eroded its fiscal credit and undermined confidence in its potential. Responsibility for halting that decline rests primarily on those who fail to pay their share. Given assurances of adequate contributions by others, the United States will be prepared to assist towards an over-all solution. Meanwhile we find it hard to understand why the membership should continue to recommend and approve budget increases beyond those necessary to meet inescapable cost increases. 55. In two parts of the world in which the United Nations has been particularly active-South Asia and the Middle East urgent progress is needed. 56. In South Asia, renewed and more widespread violence is an ever-present possibility. The events in East Pakistan are internal events with which the Government and people of Pakistan must deal. But their consequences the flight of refugees into India, the danger of famine, the threat to peace in South Asia-are of grave concern to all nations.