UN General Assembly
1967

90. Thus conceived, the treaty would constitute an important step along the road to general disarmament, and would have the effect of releasing an immense flood of material resources and mental energies vital to the achievement of economic and social progress throughout the world. 91. The world economic situation today furnishes another eloquent example of the extent to which the principle of equality comes into conflict with the hard fact of the widening gap between national levels of development. One aspect of this which is especially topical is the discrepancy in the sphere of science and technology which threatens to confront the society of tomorrow with a situation where the various States are poles apart in their stage of development. Reference has been made here quite rightly to the desirability for all countries to be able to take advantage, on an equal footing and without discrimination, of the achievements of modern science and technology and to develop an up-to-date economy of their own, without which progress Is an illusion and independence a fiction.