UN General Assembly
1993

Please accept my warm congratulations, Sir, on your election as President of the General Assembly at its forty-eighth session. I wish you luck and success in your high office. At the same time, I extend a cordial welcome to the new Members of our Organization. Addressing the Assembly 20 years ago, Willy Brandt said that the Federal Republic of Germany’s purpose in joining the United Nations was to help serve the cause of world peace. That has always been, and will remain, the fundamental aim of German foreign policy. At that time, in a bipolar world, Germany was divided. In that year, 1973, the October war broke out in the Middle East. In South Africa the inhuman apartheid regime was dominant. Today my country is united in peace and harmony with our neighbours. Today we can congratulate Israel, the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) and neighbouring Arab countries on a historic breakthrough. Today the policy of apartheid has been overcome. Without the resolve to seek peace, these developments would not have been possible.