UN General Assembly
1985

The first special session of the General Assembly devoted to disarmament raised many hopes through the Final Document and the important measures set out therein. It must nevertheless be admitted, after seven years of negotiations in the Conference on Disarmament in Geneva, that the progress achieved is far from being significant and that the Conference has become bogged down in procedural debates or sterile polemics. But the size of the stakes, involving the fate of mankind as a whole, makes it incumbent on us to persevere unremittingly in our efforts. As a member of the Geneva Conference, the Kingdom of Morocco will work, as it has in the past, inter alia, within the Group of 21, to promote concrete and constructive proposals designed to limit and freeze the ruinous arms race. More than $800 billion has been spent this year on armaments, at a time when the greatest part of the world's population is struggling with the endemic evil of underdevelopment. If we are to resolve this contradiction we must make an effort to ensure the success of the forthcoming International Conference on the Relationship between Disarmament and Development, in particular by inviting all the countries direcULy concerned to participate actively in the preparatory work.