UN General Assembly
1992

there must be a comprehensive settlement including all the aspects discussed by the multilateral working parties within the framework of the peace process. The Middle East could greatly benefit from regional cooperation in a number of areas. When the parties to a conflict sit down at the negotiating table, a dynamic process of confidence-building is often created. We hope that such dynamic effects will occur, both in the political process in South Africa and in the peace process in the Middle East. Recent developments in the disarmament area have been particularly hopeful. In the past year, the United States and the members of the Commonwealth of Independent States concerned agreed to cut back their strategic nuclear stockpiles by two thirds and to eliminate most of their tactical nuclear weapons. The draft convention on a comprehensive ban on chemical weapons represents a historic achievement in international efforts to prevent the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction. We hope that growing international consensus will lead to further effective measures to deal with weapons of mass destruction and their proliferation. Sweden pays particular