UN General Assembly
1977

60. In reviewing our actions since the last session, we note that no significant progress has been made in the settlement of the serious problems facing the international community for decades now, whether it be the matter of safeguarding peace or the great economic and social challenges threatening the world. 61. Indeed, disarmament, which is the very foundation of that true peace to which humanity aspires, remains a remote objective—indeed, an uncertain one. The meagre results achieved so far relate only to the limitation of strategic arms or the prohibition of outmoded and outdated weapons. New and ever more sophisticated devices of mass destruction continue to appear in the arsenals of the world. That prompted the Secretary-General in his report to note that the agreements concluded so far in the field of nuclear disarmament have more to do with the regulation of competition between the militarily great Powers than with disarmament itself. He also stresses that the number of nuclear warheads has increased fivefold in the past eight years.