UN General Assembly
1954

139. I cannot see any validity in this contention. The representative of India should know that, if the eight participants in the Manila Pact saw fit to fix a treaty area beyond the actual boundaries of its members, the only purpose was to provide a measure of the degree of imminence of the danger of any external acts of aggression which may be committed, so far as the actual members are concerned; and, whenever it has been determined by the members of the treaty that there is an external act of aggression against any area beyond, but clearly near, the actual boundaries of any of its members, they shall then be justified in engaging in mutual consultations with each other for the purposes of legitimate collective self-defence. That was and could have been the only intention of the eight signatories of the Manila Pact.