UN General Assembly
1989

Neither can our world become a safer place as long as international security remains precariously premised on such dated doctrines as mutual deterrence and nuclear superiority. Following the ratification of the landmark Treaty between the United States and the USSR on the Elimination of Their Intermediate-Range and Shorter-Range Missiles - the INF Treaty - momentum in the negotiations on strategic and space arms was disappointedly slow to develop. We therefore welcome the recent breakthrough achieved on this score and on some aspects of a chemical weapons ban. None the less, the arms race, especially in its qualitative aspects, is still far from abating and weapons of increasing sophistication and destructive potential continue to be added to the arsenals of the major military Powers. Consequently. the world's human, technological and material resources are being siphoned away from development purposes, resulting paradoxically in greater overall insecurity at ever increasing cost.