UN General Assembly
1977

60. We are well aware that a great many obstacles have made it difficult to achieve any significant progress in the efforts towards implementing the Declaration of the Indian Ocean as a Zone of Peace. Not the least among those obstacles are the complexities of major-Power involvement in the region, which, for instance, are reflected in the continued escalation of the military presence of those Powers in the Indian Ocean. Indonesia therefore finds some encouragement in the statements made by the leaders of both the United States and the Soviet Union which reflect a more positive attitude towards the principles and purposes of the Declaration. We hope that this attitude will result in a greater willingness on the part of the two Powers to co-operate with the Ad Hoc Committee on the Indian Ocean. This, in turn, would undoubtedly render the prospects for progress in the Committee's work more favourable.