UN General Assembly
1984

229. In the present extremely tense and complex world situation, a fundamental question looms ahead, namely, what to do to steer international relations out of the deadlock and on to a path of lasting peaceful co-operation among nations and States? To answer this question, what is needed is, first and foremost, authentic consideration of the good of one's own country and of the common good of humanity, bona fide political intent and bold imagination. The search for an answer ought to start in the most critical area, with improvement of relations between the Soviet Union and the United States, since those two leading nuclear Powers bear an exceptional responsibility for the fate of the world. Soviet-United States relations exert a decisive influence on the overall climate of relations in the world in all fields, as was so conclusively demonstrated in the 1970s. We express the hope that today's meeting between the First Vice-Chairman of the Council of Ministers and Minister for Foreign Affairs of the Soviet Union and the President of the United States will contribute to recognition by the United States Administration of the realities of the contemporary world, a world of different socio-economic systems. There is no sensible alternative to the peaceful coexistence of those systems. The policy of confrontation can only lead to a catastrophe.