UN General Assembly
1982

10. Though nuclear disarmament has been acknowledged as the first priority, according to the rationale it is the deterrent effect of the nuclear weapon that has ensured the security of many and the fragile peace. Our response remains that peace through the nuclear deterrent has been sustained, not at the progressively reduced level envisaged but at an accelerated and competitive level of nuclear destructiveness. We can therefore only reiterate that security through the nuclear deterrent and the reversal of the nuclear arms race are quite incompatible. In June we suggested that if the prohibition of the use of nuclear weapons was not acceptable we should at least demand a joint or individual declaration by nuclear-weapon States that they would not be the first to use nuclear weapons. Such an undertaking had long been given by one nuclear-weapon State, namely, China, and at the second special session on disarmament we welcomed a similar declaration by the Soviet Union. Similar or reciprocal declarations from the other nuclear-weapon States would have their own consequences as regards our goal of nuclear disarmament.