UN General Assembly
1961

34. The problem of Berlin, for example, cannot be satisfactorily — which means peacefully — solved without patient negotiations conducted with intelligence and composure. We are in favour of the self determination of peoples. The ideal solution would have been to permit the whole of the German people freely to determine their future. One day perhaps they may be able to do so. But today the partition of Germany is a fact. We may deplore that fact, but unfortunately that will not change matters. We can trace the course of the events which since 1945 have gradually brought about this state of tension. We can try to allot the blame for the situation, beginning with those who signed the Potsdam Agreement, but that will not change the problem in any way. What we must do is to deal with the situation as it is today, namely the existence of two Germanies. We must recognize the existence of two States and, for the specific problem of Berlin, find a solution which will give that city a status that will allow the Western Powers, and particularly the West Germans, free access to it.