UN General Assembly
1983

8. The Federal Republic of Germany is also a member of the Atlantic alliance which links Western Europe with the United States and Canada. This community safeguards peace in our part of the world, which so often in the past has been the battlefield of conflicting power interests. The Atlantic alliance differs from the military pacts of former times by virtue of its defensive character and the identity of shared values, such as peace, equality, democracy and respect for the rights of the individual. 9. For over 30 years we have owed peace and security in Europe to this alliance. Peace in Europe, may I add, is not an exclusively European affair. The state of peace we Europeans have been able to enjoy for more than three decades has also placed us in a position to develop and extend our economic relations with the nations of the third world, with the objective of promoting the economic and social development of those countries for the sake of their citizens.