UN General Assembly
1987

﻿It had been the intention of the Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade, Mr. Hayden, to be present at this session of the General Assembly for his general debate statement. It is evidence of the Australian Government's deep attachment to the United Nations and the principles which underlie the Organization that Mr. Hayden has presented each Australian general debate statement since his appointment in 1983. On this occasion, however, events in our own region compelled Mr. Hayden to return home from New York. The statement I shall now make is the statement Mr. Hayden would have delivered if it had been possible for him to attend this session. Let me first extend to Mr. Peter Florin my congratulations on his assumption the presidency of the forty-second session of the General Assembly. At the same time I should like to express Australia's warm appreciation to the outgoing President and representative of a fellow Commonwealth country, the Minister for Foreign Affairs of Bangladesh.