UN General Assembly
1967

80. Allow me on behalf of my delegation to extend to you, Mr. President, our warm congratulations on your election to preside over the deliberations of the General Assembly at its twenty-second session. Your election as the first representative from the socialist countries of Eastern Europe to head the General Assembly is a significant event in the history of the United Nations. It symbolizes the gratifying degree of maturity, tolerance and understanding which the United Nations has attained since San Francisco and through the period of the cold war. We have come to realize that although our countries may profess divergent political beliefs, this should not deter us from devising a practical working relationship that would enable us together to strengthen the fabric of peace in the world and to advance the welfare of mankind.