UN General Assembly
1974

340. We have also very often heard that political will is necessary if developed countries are to fulfill their obligations and commitments under the International Development Strategy for the Second United Nations Development Decade and help create a truly new economic order. Indeed, the problem, in essence, is a political one, and the time has come for the developed countries to show greater statesmanship so as to translate the various resolutions, strategies, declarations and programs into actions. The problem is also a moral one, for the developed countries owe it to the developing countries, as their former colonial masters who exploited their human and natural resources, and thus built the foundations of their own prosperity, to bring about economic and social stability. As you, Mr. President, so eloquently put it in your address to us, "However decisive the distribution of power may be, moral considerations also have their weight, and this weight can be decisive" [2233rd meeting, para. 31].