UN General Assembly
1992

and the international community. The East-West bipolarity of the cold war era has disappeared with the end of that war. There has surfaced, however, a new North-South bipolarity that was overshadowed previously by the world's preoccupation with the ideological conflict between East and West. We hope that efforts to deal with this phenomenon, which is primarily economic and social, will take the form of a positive and constructive dialogue for the benefit of all mankind. The developing South needs the countries of the North; the industrialized North cannot maintain its prosperity and stability without an independent and developed South that would be free from hunger, poverty, and disease and relieved of its heavy burden of debt. The planet on which we live, with all the threats of ecological disruption facing it, cannot enjoy security and safety without cooperation between North and South. Such cooperation is in the interest of all humanity. If we were to define the new role of the United Nations, it, undoubtedly/ would be humanitarian in nature and would aim at protecting and preserving