UN General Assembly
1977

71. But none of us, however cohesive the group to which we belong, can ignore the larger world and our collective responsibility for it. We in Ireland see our membership in the Community as helping to open that world to us and we want to discharge our share of that responsibility through the Community to which we have committed ourselves. 72. It is our belief that my country's particular history and our particular economic experience give us the possibility of establishing links with countries of a similar background, even though they are geographically distant from us, and we would hope that this in turn will help to establish better relationships between the European Community and the regions and regional groups to which they belong.