UN General Assembly
1965

81. As we all know, the financial crisis in the United Nations and the arrangements for future peacekeeping operations have been discussed here and elsewhere at great length. I do not wish again to go into various positions adopted. Suffice it to remind the Assembly that my country belonged — and still belongs — to those who subscribed to the Advisory Opinion of the International Court of Justice, to wit, that expenses for peace-keeping operations belong to the expenses mentioned in Article 17 of our Charter, for which Members can be assessed by the General Assembly. This view implies, however, that before decisions on peace-keeping operations are made, all the political and financial consequences are examined with the greatest care in order to be sure that such a decision can be carried out in practice. The deadlock of last year paralysed the nineteenth session of the General Assembly and threatened to paralyse the whole of the United Nations. Unresolved, it would have made normal work impossible for this twentieth session. Only a major concession on the part of some countries rendered it possible to return to a normal procedure.