UN General Assembly
1969

no less an authority than the Secretary-General himself, in response, moreover, to a request made by inter alia the Philippines itself. Therefore, howsoever or in whatever forum the Philippines now wishes to pursue its claim, unless it can explain how it can expect us to ignore the simple but fundamental fact that the people of Sabah have exercised their right of self-determination, then there is nothing more to be said on this matter. What is disturbing to us is that, by playing up the matter of this claim, our neighbour is playing into the enemy’s hands and thereby causing some setbacks in our efforts in the various fields of regional co-operation. 31. The situation in that part of the world demands that each and every country of South-East Asia see how best we can face our common dangers. Of course, I do not mean by this that there should necessarily be a multilateral defence pact among the South-East Asian countries. I know that this is in many ways impracticable and even, in the view of