UN General Assembly
1972

16. None the less, we have been asked more than once to support the aspirations of States which wish to extend considerably their territorial as well as their so-called patrimonial sea, or the zone contiguous to the territorial sea. But we have already said that any extension of this kind automatically reduces the rights of the land-locked States. Therefore, there is an obvious contradiction in such requests, when they are made with no mention of any form of compensation. Certainly today's world is growing ever more interdependent; and certainly States-particularly those that belong to the developing world-need each other and are in duty bound to express mutual solidarity to each other in order to strengthen the defence of their common interests. But solidarity implies a certain amount of give and take. It cannot take the form of support by some States for the aspirations of others without corresponding concessions. Yet this is precisely the kind of one-sided situation which exists between the riparian States and the land-locked or inland States. Has the time not yet come, we wonder, to focus on these problems with a more decisive and enlightened sense of solidarity? This is the question that we are not called upon to answer alone.