UN General Assembly
1988

As we undertake the long-overdue review of the question of island developing countries this year, my delegation hopes that we can move from the stage of the purely academic to one of putting in place specific mechanisms to assist those countries in particular and effective ways. We now have, so to speak, a second chance to make this Organization what it was supposed to be, In 1969, U Thant, then Secretary-General, warned us that we had little time left in which to subordinate our ancient quarrels and launch a global partnership to curb the arms race, to improve the human environment, to defuse the population explosion and to give the required momentum to development efforts. And, to be sure, it is a truism, as laid down in the principles of the Inter-Allied Declaration of 12 June 1941 that: "The only true basis of enduring peace is the willing co-operation of free peoples in a world in which, relieved of the menace of aggression, all may enjoy economic and social security. It is up to us."