UN General Assembly
1973

59. Reference has been made by several speakers to the recent meetings at Algiers of the non-aligned nations.31 was very proud of the contribution made by my own small country on that unique occasion. I was particularly pleased to see over 70 great nations, in many instances represented by their Heads of State, from Afghanistan to Zaire, concentrate so much energy and thought on economic and social matters. In these areas there seems to be no space for detente. This effect is not felt here, and it is precisely in these fields that the poor nations need most consideration and that the world needs a new understanding. The very reason that brought the non-aligned group into existence was that the world became aware of the total disaster that could overtake it unless sanity prevailed. It seems less ominous today than it was a decade or two ago, and a great deal of this is owing to the pioneers of the non-aligned movement; but the spread of terrorism, the grim hatreds behind the smiling and non-smiling faces in the ghettos of the world require a universal awareness of the need to fashion effective means of constructive action in the economic and social fields. Failure to do this will not merely mean for us a failure to grasp the opportunity of the moment, but will also cast all of us in the role of enjoying a frivolous flirtation with history.