Mr. President, allow me to congratulate you on the occasion of your election to this most responsible position and to express the conviction that your activities will contribute to a fruitful session of the United Nations General Assembly.
93.	In the Soviet Union, as elsewhere, we learned with great sadness the news of the demise of the President of the People's Republic of Angola, Agostinho Neto. Our memories of that great political leader of Africa, that tireless fighter for peace and friendship among peoples, will for ever remain in the hearts of the Soviet people.
94.	The current session of the United Nations General Assembly is the last one to be held in the 1970s. This gives us certain grounds not only for considering the topical issues of today but also for summing up some of the political results of the decade which is about to close and for casting a glance at the past. For the problems of today, as indeed the future itself, are more clearly seen against the background of what the past has to tell us about what action was successful and what was not.
95.	It is worthwhile to recall the circumstances which brought about the founding of the United Nations. The war was still raging and the sword of just retribution had not yet fallen on those who instigated it when the leaders of the major nations of the anti-Fascist coalition undertook a task which today still retains its vital importance: the setting up of a reliable barrier against another world tragedy. That task was indeed enshrined in the United Nations Charter as the main goal of this Organization. The effectiveness of the United Nations in maintaining international peace has been and remains the main yardstick in judging all its activities.
96.	Has the United Nations lived up to its mandate? There can be no simple answer to that question. Yet it should be recognized that it has done a lot of good for consolidating peace and promoting international cooperation. It is also evident that the United Nations could have done more than it has.
97.	We are all aware that the manner in which the States Members of the United Nations act in international affairs cannot be reduced to one common denominator. Here the amplitude between different policy trends is great: some have not yet abandoned their claims to dominate the rest and even to hegemony in the world arena; others, naturally, cannot and will not reconcile themselves to this.
98.	Some countries make every effort to put an end to the arms race and demonstrate a serious and responsible approach to this task; others, on the contrary, hurl ever more funds into that race and inflate their military budgets,
99.	In short, the United Nations, as the broadest international organization, shows up in the boldest relief the characteristic features of the world with all its contradictions and collisions and, at the same time, the growing hopes of the peoples for a peaceful future.
100.	The Soviet Union has never abandoned the belief in the possibility of building a solid edifice of peace. Our people and their Government take this as their basic premise and that there is weighty reason for this has been confirmed by the decade of the 1970s.
101.	At the beginning of the current decade there was a new lease on life, so to speak, through a series of treaties which have brought international relations in Europe in line with the realities of its post-war development. The first Soviet-American agreements on the limitation of strategic arms and the basic principles of relations between the USSR and the United States of America were also concluded at that time.
102.	Special mention should also be made of the historic Conference of the top leaders of 35 nations at Helsinki, which sealed in a document the evolution of Europe towards stronger security and co-operation. In that period, long and serious negotiations at the second round of SALT resulted in the Soviet-American Treaty, whose entry into force, one can say, the whole world is looking forward to.
103.	Indeed, all of us can say that the 1970s will hold an important place in history. These years have seen the positive trend in international affairs which was named "detente" becoming a broad process. Detente—and the Soviet Union stood at its cradle— express the aspirations of our entire nation and, we are sure, those of all peoples of the world.
104.	The attitude towards detente is the best indicator of any country's political intentions. In recent years many a good word has been said about detente. But even very good words in favour of detente are not enough; they must be buttressed by deeds, by the policies of States.
105.	There are still people in the world today who frown when they hear the word "detente"; their faces wrinkle like that of a hungry cat tasting a cucumber in a kitchen-garden.
106.	Take, for instance, the questions of renouncing the spread of enmity and hatred among nations and the prohibition of war propaganda. This is, we may say, a minimum for any State adhering to the policy of detente and desirous of promoting a healthy political climate in the world.
107.	As far back as 1947 the General Assembly adopted a resolution against the propaganda for another war. Over 30 years have elapsed since then, but who would undertake to assert today that such propaganda has been stopped? In many States it has not even been outlawed.
108.	The Soviet Union did that long ago. The provision stating that "war propaganda is banned in the USSR" is a formal part of our Constitution, the fundamental law of our State.
109.	On more than one occasion we have emphasized the urgency of this matter. Indeed, before the guns of the aggressors who unleashed the Second World War began to thunder, war propaganda had been in full swing for many years. Incessant calls had been made for the map of Europe and of the world to be carved up to suit the aggressors' designs. The Soviet Union mentions this fact because the forces that seek to condition people to think in terms of war and the arms build-up are still active.
110.	It is becoming a tradition in some countries to play out scenarios of military conflicts. "Look," they say, "that is how things are going to develop." And estimates are made of the casualties and the number of cities to be swept away. Tens or even hundreds of millions of lives are written off in those callous calculations.
111.	The ancient Greeks, and not they alone, left us wise myths whose beauty lies in glorifying what is human in man. It is not to the credit of our contemporaries that other myths are invented today which are designed to stupefy man with pessimism and to make him despair of the triumph of reason. They depict war as totally unavoidable.
112.	There is no doubt as to the purposes for which these and other myths are invented and the policies which they are designed to serve.
113.	What a huge number of films, books, articles and speeches of politicians and "quasi-politicians", all shot through with falsity and deception, are produced to make people believe the fictitious stories about the source of a threat to peace.
114.	One example is the campaign launched with regard to Cuba, in the course of which all sorts of falsehoods are being piled up concerning the policies of Cuba and the Soviet Union. But the truth is that this propaganda is totally without foundation in reality, and is indeed based on falsehoods. The Soviet Union and Cuba have already stated as much. Our advice on this score is simple: the artificiality of this entire question must be honestly admitted and the matter closed.
115.	The Soviet Union and other countries of the socialist community have never threatened anybody, nor are they doing so now. A society which is confident of its creative forces and abilities needs no war. It needs peace. These words have been inscribed on the banner of our foreign policy ever since the days of Lenin.
116.	The policy of peace and friendship among peoples, the policy of peaceful coexistence of States with different social systems, has invariably been expressed in the decisions of the congresses of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union. This policy course will be followed unswervingly in the future- as well.
117.	Naturally, the USSR and its Warsaw Treaty allies cannot fail to take into account the fact that some States are continuing their military preparations and stepping them up. In these circumstances the USSR and its allies are compelled to look after their security. At the same time our approach in this matter can be described as follows: "The defence potential of the Soviet Union", as L.I. Brezhnev has pointed out, ' 'must be at a level that would deter anyone from attempting to disrupt our peaceful life. A course aimed not at achieving superiority in weapons, but at reducing armaments and easing military confrontation—such is our policy."
118.	He who trusts this policy will never be deceived. The USSR and the socialist countries can always be relied upon in the struggle for peace, disarmament and detente and for the freedom and independence of peoples. Those countries have common ideals and are guided by common goals. Shoulder to shoulder, their peoples are working hard in the grandiose effort of construction.
119.	Indeed the whole world knows how many proposals, and what kind of proposals, have been submitted by the socialist States to other countries, first of all in the United Nations, with the aim of deepening the process of easing tensions in the world, of broadening peaceful co-operation among States, and of strengthening international security.
120.	The countries making up the socialist community co-ordinate their policies for the sake of universal peace, the security of their own peoples and the peoples of other countries. This was again confirmed with new vigour by the fruitful results of the latest series of meetings held by L.I. Brezhnev with top Party and State leaders of socialist countries which took place in the Crimea last summer.
121.	I feel that our opinion will not differ from that of most participants in this session if I say that a comparison of the United Nations Charter provisions with what is going on in the sphere of military activities in some countries reveals a glaring contradiction. Although those States affixed their signatures to the United Nations Charter and its peaceful purposes and principles, they are nevertheless doing everything to see that stockpiled mountains of weapons grow.
122.	In the meantime, the world has long since crossed the line beyond which the arms race has become sheer madness. We urge all States Members of the United Nations to counter this madness with common sense and the will to strengthen mutual trust. For its part, the USSR, together with other countries, will continue to work consistently to stop the arms race, to start dismantling the war machine part by part and to reduce the military arsenals of States down to general and complete disarmament.
123.	Here at the United Nations and at various forums where the disarmament problem is under discussion, there is certainly no dearth of proposals that are well considered and based on the principle of equality and equal security. There are proposals relating both to weapons of mass destruction and to conventional weapons. We are still seized with the question of the reduction of military budgets.
124.	There has been no small number of major initiatives directed towards a general improvement of the political climate in the world, including the proposal for a world treaty on the non-use of force in international relations. In our view, not a single State that sincerely strives for peace and good relations with other countries could possibly object to such a treaty.
125.	There are also initiatives concerning various regions of the world. I should like to point, in particular, to the idea of the States bordering on the Indian Ocean that this ocean be turned into a zone of peace, an idea which is supported by the majority of the countries Members of the United Nations. The Soviet Union is certainly in favour of implementing this idea. It is actively working for an early resumption of the Soviet- American talks on the limitation and subsequent reduction of military activities in the Indian Ocean, talks which were interrupted through no fault of ours. An appropriate agreement on that subject would undoubtedly give this idea a more tangible shape, and this would have a favourable impact on the entire international situation.
126.	Yet, on the whole, one has to note with concern that all or almost all proposals for ending the arms race and for disarmament as a rule encounter opposition on the part of a number of States. They frequently get bogged down in the quagmire of debate. And it takes tremendous efforts to bring them up to the stage of decision-making, though such decisions do not yet ensure real disarmament even in limited areas.
127.	A considerable period of time has already elapsed since the question was raised about reaching an agreement on ending the production of all types of nuclear weapons and the gradual reduction of their stockpiles until they have been completely liquidated. In our days there is no more burning problem than that of removing the threat of nuclear war. Every reasonable person understands this. And it cannot be effectively solved without stopping the assembly line producing an incessant flow of weapons of monstrous destructive power—nuclear warheads, bombs and shells.
128.	As we have repeatedly stated, the Soviet Union is prepared to discuss this fundamental problem together with other countries, and it is proposing that specific negotiations be initiated. All the nuclear Powers without exception are in duty bound to take part in them.
129.	It is sometimes said that ending the production of nuclear weapons and their liquidation are too difficult a task. But can this be a reason for not starting the search for ways and means to resolve the problem? We are sure that reaching an appropriate agreement is not beyond the realm of possibility if States, and first of all the nuclear States, adopt a responsible approach.
130.	The complex of questions relating to nuclear weapons includes the ensuring of guarantees of the security of non-nuclear States and the non-stationing of nuclear weapons on the territories of States where there are no such weapons at present.
131.	The General Assembly has already adopted resolutions of principle on these matters. It is now necessary to embody them in binding international agreements.
132 In our view, further efforts should be made to strengthen the regime of non-proliferation of nuclear weapons. The responsibility for this lies upon all States. We hope that the forthcoming Review Conference of the Parties to the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons will be crowned with positive results. This Conference will be held soon.
133.	Negotiations on a number of essential aspects of disarmament are already in progress, and on some they have been going on for a long time. I should like to single out a couple of questions whose solution could, in our view, be found in the not-too-distant future.
134.	Progress has been achieved in the negotiations between the Soviet Union, the United States and the United Kingdom on the complete and general prohibition of nuclear-weapon tests. We would expect that no complicating elements will be introduced in the negotiations by our partners. But, unfortunately, these complications are being introduced even today.
135.	In the course of Soviet-American consultations, basic elements of an agreement banning radiological weapons have been worked out. If work on the agreement is not impeded artificially, it can be speedily prepared for signature. This means that, following the can on bacteriological weapons, one more type of weapon of mass destruction will be prohibited.
136.	The file of constructive proposals on various aspects of the disarmament problem is impressive and proper use should be made of it. This offers broad opportunities for action by the United Nations, which, at its tenth special session, devoted to disarmament, adopted a programme which on the whole is a good one. A United Nations resolution should not merely remain on paper. For the time being, however, it is but a paper, though a well-written one.
137.	The signing of the Soviet-American Treaty on the Limitation of Strategic Offensive Arms is convincing proof that, given goodwill and readiness to take into account each other's legitimate interests, it is possible to achieve agreements on the most difficult questions. The Treaty builds a bridge to the further limitation and reduction of strategic weapons. It also contains great potential for exerting a positive influence on other negotiations on the limitations of the arms race and on disarmament.
138.	It can be stated without exaggeration that a major step has been taken for the USSR, the United States of America and the entire world. It is quite understandable, therefore, that, one after another, the representatives of States speaking from this rostrum speak out in favour of that Treaty.
139.	The strengthening of universal peace is inseparable from ensuring security in Europe. The situation on the European continent is not merely a part of the general picture of the world situation: today, as in the past, it has a profound impact on the course of international developments.
140.	Since the historic moment when it raised the banner of a new social system, our country has been pursuing a consistent course towards creating conditions of reliable peace in Europe. Everything we have accomplished in the name of that goal is an open book, and we are proud of its every page.
141.	Of course, we are far from underestimating the contributions made by other States. We give their due to the countries that took part in the Conference on Security and Co-operation in Europe, which was crowned by the adoption of the Final Act. That document provides guidelines for further efforts to deepen the process of detente in Europe.
142.	Today the basis for the peaceful co-operation of States on the European continent is more solid than it was yesterday. Favourable changes have taken place in relations between socialist and capitalist countries in Europe.
143.	Soviet-French co-operation is on the rise. There is a considerable degree of mutual understanding and agreement on major issues of European and world politics, and accordingly there is a possibility for the further development of fruitful co-operation.
144.	The development of our relations with the Federal Republic of Germany has been following a positive trend. Both sides appreciate the mutual advantages of what has been achieved, recognizing that a good deal could yet be accomplished in the future. I should like to express the hope that there will be no move on the part of the Federal Republic of Germany that would reduce such possibilities for the future or that would run counter to the peaceful line in Europe and to the easing of international tensions.
145.	We are interested in the consistent development of Soviet-British relations. We are hopeful that there is a desire for this in the United Kingdom, too.
146.	We have good relations with Italy. The assets accumulated in these relations must be multiplied.
147.	I should like to note the genuine and traditional good-neighbourly relations between the USSR and Finland. We appreciate all the good achievements that have been made in our relations with other Scandinavian countries.
148.	A positive shift is taking place in our relations with Spain.
149.	The development of our ties with the rest of Western Europe is also a source of satisfaction.
150.	On the whole, both in the field of bilateral relations with States having a different social system and in other fields, the Soviet Union is following the course charted by the Helsinki Conference.
151.	The roots that political detente has taken on European soil cannot, however, be viable unless practical measures are taken in the field of military detente. In this regard, great prospects have been opened up by the proposals contained in the Declaration of the Political Advisory Committee of the Warsaw Treaty Organization adopted last November, and in the May communique of the Committee of the Ministers for Foreign Affairs of that Organization.
152.	First of all, I wish to refer to the initiative concerning the conclusion between the European States participants in the Helsinki Conference of a treaty on the non-first use of either nuclear or conventional weapons against each other, the intent of which is self- evident.
153.	Unfortunately, our Western partners have not yet shown themselves ready to engage in talks on this problem. Nevertheless, we expect that a sober approach and a sense of responsibility will prompt them to react positively to our proposal.
154.	The socialist countries are still waiting for a response to yet another important initiative of theirs— concerning the convening, at a political level and with the participation of all European countries as well as the United States and Canada, of a conference on strengthening confidence among States, easing military confrontation and the subsequent thinning out of armed forces and armaments in Europe, and their reduction. Each of those countries could make its own contribution to the work of that conference.
155.	In the opinion of the Soviet Union, substantial work is needed on a bilateral as well as a multilateral basis to ensure the success of both the conference on military detente on the European continent and the Madrid meeting to be held next year of representatives of the States participants in the Conference on Security and Co-operation in Europe. Far from competing with each other, those two forums are complementary.
156.	As for the Madrid meeting, it should focus its attention on truly urgent issues of detente in Europe. No narrow selfish interests should be allowed to prevent this.
157.	Now a few words about the Vienna talks, the subject of which, as will be recalled, is the reduction of armed forces and armaments in Central Europe. This is not a problem of significance to Europe alone. Our country invariably adopts constructive positions at those talks and puts forward initiatives which also take into account the legitimate interests of the Western partners. Only strict observance of the principle of undiminished security of either party would bring the Vienna talks to the road leading to agreement, and the sooner that happens the better.
158.	The review of problems relating to Europe would be incomplete if no reference were made to attempts undertaken from time to time by some countries to test the durability of the Quadripartite Agreement on Berlin.  This is contrary to the long-term interests which provided the basis for that agreement and which must serve as guidance for all States, particularly the parties to it.
159.	The root-cause of the complexities and contradictions of the international situation at the present day lies to no small extent in the fact that the existing sources of tensions and conflicts between States do not disappear and that now and then new ones keep springing up.
160.	There is more than one such source in Asia. It was only six months ago that aggression was committed against the Socialist Republic of Viet Nam. Practically the whole world branded the aggressors as such, but have appropriate conclusions been drawn from that event by all those who should have drawn them?
161.	This issue cannot be drowned in the artificially whipped up propaganda campaign concerning Indo- Chinese refugees, a campaign whose sharp edge is directed against Viet Nam. No, that edge should be turned in another direction, which is well known.
162.	It is also no secret who imposed and nurtured the bloodthirsty murderous regime of Pol Pot. Today that regime in Kampuchea has been done away with and there will be no return to the past. The legitimate representatives of the Kampuchean people must be given the opportunity to take the seat belonging to Kampuchea in the United Nations.
163.	The policy of some States that are intensifying their interference in the internal affairs of Afghanistan is short-sighted—there is no other term for it. That country, which has chosen the road of progressive democratic transformation, comes out in favour of good relations with its neighbours and pursues an independent foreign policy, a policy of non-alignment. The Soviet Union, which has long-standing ties of friendship and good neighbourliness with Afghanistan, con-siders that this inadmissible interference must be stopped.
164.	With respect to such Middle East States as Turkey and Iran, not only have we common borders but we also maintain relations of traditional co-operation with them. We take a positive attitude to the steps which those and other Asian countries take to protect and strengthen their sovereignty, and we are willing to develop relations with them.
165.	We in the Soviet Union are satisfied with the friendly nature of relations between the USSR and India, that great Asian country with its consistently peaceful policy. The Soviet-Indian relationship is a major factor for stability and peace on the Asian continent.
166.	We wish to maintain, naturally on the basis of reciprocity, normal good relations with all States, whether in south or south-east Asia or in the Far East. This applies to Japan, Indonesia, the Philippines, Malaysia, Thailand, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka and other countries of those regions.
167.	Like all peace-loving peoples, the Soviet people are gravely concerned over the state of affairs in the Middle East—one of the "hottest" spots on earth, where now there emanates a serious threat to peace.
168.	The Middle East problem, if divested of what is immaterial, boils down to the following: either the con-sequences of the aggression against the Arab States and peoples are eliminated or the invaders will be rewarded by being allowed to appropriate lands that belong to others. A just settlement and the establishment of lasting peace in the Middle East require that Israel should end its occupation of all the Arab lands it seized in 1967; that the legitimate rights of the Arab people of Palestine, including the right to establish their own State, be safeguarded; and that the right of all States in the Middle East, including Israel, to independent existence under conditions of peace be effectively guaranteed.
169.	The separate deal between Egypt and Israel resolves nothing. It is nothing but a means designed to lull the vigilance of peoples. It is a way of piling up on a still greater scale explosive material capable of producing a new conflagration in the Middle East. Moreover, added to the tense political atmosphere in this and the adjacent areas, is the heavy smell of oil.
170.	It is high time that all States represented in the United Nations realized how vast is the tragedy of the Arab people of Palestine. What is the worth of declarations in defence of humanism and human rights— whether for refugees or not—if before the eyes of the entire world the inalienable rights of an entire people, driven from its land and deprived of a livelihood, are grossly trampled upon?
171.	The Soviet policy with respect to the Middle East problem is one of principle. We are in favour of a comprehensive and just settlement, of the establishment of durable peace in the Middle East, a region not far from our borders. The Soviet Union sides firmly with Arab peoples, who resolutely reject deals at the expense of their legitimate interests.
172.	By adopting in 1960 the Declaration on the Granting of Independence to Colonial Countries and Peoples—one of the most significant acts of the United Nations—the world community acknowledged the indisputable fact that the hour of colonialism had struck. Since then an overwhelming majority of peoples have cast off the yoke of colonialism. But humanity's conscience continues to revolt against the fact that the shackles of colonialism and racism have not yet been completely broken. And it is above all of southern Africa that we should be talking here.
173.	For many years now the peoples of Zimbabwe and Namibia have been waging a selfless struggle for their freedom and independence. The Soviet Union is entirely on the side of their noble cause. We have raised and shall continue to raise our voice in their support, and we shall co-operate with those States, especially African States, which adhere to the positions of justice, of upholding the inalienable rights of those peoples. All kinds of combinations, no matter how superficially clever, which are aimed at preserving the domination of racists and colonialists with the help of hastily formed puppet regimes should be resolutely rejected.
174.	Is it possible to achieve a political settlement in southern Africa? Yes, it is possible and there are ways leading to it. But so far the racists and their stooges have replied with bullets to proposals that a choice be made in favour of a just and peaceful solution.
175.	The session of the General Assembly of the United Nations will be right if it clearly states its resolute support for the liberation struggle of the peoples of southern Africa and condemns attempts to drown this struggle in blood as a crime against humanity. It is a direct duty of the United Nations to make those who ignore the decisions of the United Nations on southern Africa respect them.
176.	The Soviet people are well aware of the contribution of the peoples of Latin America to the struggle for peace and national liberation. This contribution will be all the greater the more the stand of Latin American States in defending their independence is resolute and the less their policies are influenced from the outside. In this connexion, we note with satisfaction the growing authority of Latin America in international relations.
177.	In its approach to all continents, to all countries of the world, the Soviet Union does not apply different yardsticks when it comes to the sovereignty of States, the freedom of peoples and genuine human rights. One cannot hold aloft the Charter of the United Nations in one situation and hide it under the table in another. The provisions and principles of the Charter must be applied equally to any State and any people.
178.	The Soviet Union has repeatedly stressed, notably in the United Nations, the significance of the non-aligned movement and its peaceful orientation. We are confident that the non-aligned States will continue to make use of their entire political weight in the interests of peace, disarmament and detente. This confidence of ours is supported by the successful results of the Sixth Conference of Heads of State or Government of Non-Aligned Countries, which recently ended in Havana. This was an important forum and a major international event.
179.	What is needed in the first place to resolve any important international problem of a political, economic or other nature is an atmosphere of peace. And whether peace will be more durable or less stable depends to an important extent on the state of relations between the Soviet Union and the United States. That conclusion is objective and indisputable.
180.	The leadership of the Soviet Union makes no secret of its desire to have normal and, what is more, friendly relations with the United States. This only requires the observance of principles which have become well-established in international relations; and they are recorded, in particular, in the well-known Soviet-American documents—that is, the principles of peaceful coexistence between States and of non-interference in the affairs of others. We shall not allow anybody to meddle in our internal affairs. Concern for Soviet-American relations is a matter for both sides. It is only on this basis that the relations between the USSR and the United States can develop successfully.
181.	Our position was stated with exhaustive clarity and precision by L. I. Brezhnev in Vienna, in particular, in the course of his meeting with the President of the United States, Mr. Jimmy Carter. The meeting showed that, given the wish on both sides, the USSR and the United States are able to find mutually acceptable solutions and to co-operate in the interests of international detente and peace,
182.	L. I. Brezhnev has stated:
"There is no country or people in the world, in fact, with which the Soviet Union would not like to have good relations; there is no topical international problem to the solution of which the Soviet Union would not be willing to contribute; there is no source of danger of war in the removal of which by peaceful means the Soviet Union would not be interested."
183.	In the succession of post-war developments, along with positive events there were also dangerous ones which gravely threatened the foundations of peace. A closer look at these developments would easily reveal that the evolution of the international situation largely depends upon the States which have the most powerful levers to influence it.
184.	When those levers are activated to attain objectives contrary to, or even openly defying, the United Nations Charter, conflict situations and international crises arise. The instigators of such events usually seek to whitewash themselves and, in that, they do not hesitate to pin all kinds of labels on others. That is a procedure that is, unfortunately, sometimes followed.
185.	One such tactic consists in juggling with the term "hegemonism", which in recent years has been increasingly used in international political practice. Although of recent origin, the term "hegemonism" denotes a phenomenon that is far from new. On the contrary, it has been known, so to speak, from time immemorial. It means striving for world domination, for domination over other countries and peoples.
186.	The Soviet attitude towards hegemonism and domination is clear. Since its very first days, the Soviet State has resolutely objected to anyone's being a hegemonist with others submitting to his will, and to any States' holding a position of domination over others.
187.	Twenty million human lives were sacrificed by our people to defeat Hitler's designs for world domination and to bury hegemonism in its Fascist attire. This figure alone is indicative of our score with hegemonism.
188.	Hegemonism is a direct antipode to the equality of States and peoples, an antipode to the ideal which the October Revolution proclaimed for the whole world and which the United Nations, as prescribed by its Charter, should promote in every possible way in international relations. Its manifestation in our day constitutes a serious obstacle to the process of detente to which there is not and cannot be any reasonable alternative.
189.	The time has come for all States Members of the United Nations to take an unambiguous position with regard to hegemonism—to condemn it and to block any claims to hegemony in world affairs. Its inadmissibility should be raised to the level of a principle that must be rigorously observed.
190.	Guided by all this, the Soviet Union is proposing the inclusion in the agenda of the current session of an important item entitled "Inadmissibility of the policy of hegemonism in international relations" and is submitting an appropriate draft resolution to be considered at the session.
191.	The purport of this draft resolution is that no States or groups of States should claim, under any circumstances or for any motives whatsoever, hegemony in regard to other States or groups of States.
192.	We are convinced that all those who approach the conduct of international affairs on the basis of equality and in the interests of detente and peace cannot oppose the adoption of such a draft resolution. It is to be hoped that the General Assembly will consider the draft with a high sense of responsibility.
193.	Following the General Assembly, the United Nations Security Council, with the five nuclear Powers as its , permanent members, could also express itself against hegemonism. It would be a good idea subsequently to couch the renunciation by States of a policy of hegemonism in all its manifestations in terms of a broad international agreement and to conclude such an agreement or treaty.
194.	In conducting its policy, our country scrupulously complies with the principles of the United Nations Charter and invariably pursues its purposes. We never lose sight of the fundamental basis of the activities of the world Organization, that is, concentration of its efforts in ensuring that the peoples can live in conditions of peace. The Soviet Union has consistently come out in favour of strengthening the United Nations, of no one's being allowed to erode it.
195.	The peoples will assess the results of the current session, like those of previous sessions, of the General Assembly primarily in terms of what it will have achieved to make people feel more secure. Hence, great responsibility rests with all States Members of the United Nations and with their representatives assembled in this hall.
196.	Everything positive that we can achieve today will help us in the 1980s to consolidate and to develop the successes of the 1970s. That in turn will largely determine the thoughts and feelings, the memories of the past and the faith in the future that mankind will take with it into the next millennium.
197.	We wish, and we shall do all in our power to ensure, that the work of the thirty-fourth session of the General Assembly may culminate in the adoption of resolutions that will be commended by the peoples of the world.


Sir, in extending to you our most sincere congratulations on your outstanding election as President
of the thirty-fourth session of the General Assembly, the delegation of the Revolutionary People's Republic of Guinea would like to pay a deserved tribute to your people, the great people of the United Republic of Tanzania. My country, which has had numerous opportunities to appreciate your high sense of duty as Chairman of the Special Committee on the Situation with regard to the Implementation of the Declaration on the Granting of Independence to Colonial Countries and Peoples, is convinced in advance of the total success of the work of this thirty-fourth session.
143.	Our delegation would also like to take this opportunity to extend its sincere thanks to your predecessor, Mr. Indalecio Lievano of Colombia, for the outstanding manner in which he directed the work of the thirty-third session.
144.	May we also be permitted to express our gratitude to Mr. Kurt Waldheim, the Secretary- General, for the great competence with which he is fulfilling his delicate mission at the head of our Organization. We assure him of the firm support and total confidence of the people of Guinea and its President, Comrade Ahmed Se'kou Toure'.
145.	Lastly, it is with great satisfaction that we welcome to our midst the new State of Saint Lucia, with which our country would like to establish relations of confidence, friendship and co-operation.
146.	Africa has just suffered an immense loss in the passing of President Antonio Agostinho Neto of Angola, a tireless and intransigent fighter for the democratic African revolution. We address to our sister delegation of Angola a sincere expression of our condolences, and we wish to assure it of our active solidarity.
147.	An analysis of the international political situation brings out the inevitable contradiction which pits the forces of emancipation of peoples against the systems of oppression and exploitation. The axis of the situation lies between two poles: the persistence of foreign domination, and the liberation struggle waged on various fronts by the peoples of Africa, Asia and Latin America.
148.	Thus, we are bound to continue to observe with bitterness, but also alas in guilty impotence, that in southern Africa millions of Africans are groaning permanently under the weight of racist oppression and exploitation. Arbitrary imprisonments and massacres of African populations are common practices designed to check any attempt on the part of the majority to lay claim to the exercise of its inalienable rights to self- determination and independence.
149.	The white racist minority regimes implanted in South Africa, in Zimbabwe and in Namibia are the best possible bases of aggression against Mozambique, Zambia, Botswana, Angola and Lesotho. At the same time, they are the choice subjugated zone of imperialist exploitation, a fact which adequately explains the material aid and the political and diplomatic support that is given to those regimes by the Western Powers. The incredible and intolerable indifference of the Western allies of Pretoria and Salisbury to the bombings and aggressions of all kinds against the front-line countries form part of this support.
150.	The delegation of the Party-State of Guinea calls vigorously and insistently for the application against the apartheid regime of Pretoria of sanctions provided for in Chapter VII of the Charter. It also feels that it is the duty of the international community to afford Mozambique, Angola, Zambia, Botswana and Lesotho increasing aid of various kinds to enable them to resist victoriously the onslaughts of South Africa and Rhodesia and to cope with their consequences—in particular, material destruction and the constant and increasing flow of refugees.
151.	Without anticipating the outcome of the London negotiations, our delegation is convinced of the inescapable nature of the victory of the peoples of Zimbabwe, whose armed struggle is directed by the Patriotic Front. The armed struggle waged by the gallant freedom fighters in Namibia under the leadership of their vanguard, SWAPO, for total independence, including Walvis Bay, an integral part of the Territory, will be crowned with success.
152.	The daily battle waged by the patriots of South Africa, in spite of all neo-colonialist manoeuvres now in progress, will also achieve victory. We know from experience that independence and freedom are not negotiated: they are fought for and won.
153.	An examination of the situation in Africa, in South-East Asia and in the Middle East exposes other hotbeds of tension, and brings into focus the immensity of the task which our Organization has to face in trying to establish a just and lasting peace in all these parts of the world.
154.	With regard to Western Sahara, our delegation would recall that the OAU has already assumed its responsibilities through the adoption, at the sixteenth ordinary session of its Assembly of Heads of State or Government at Monrovia, of the report of the committee of wise men, or the Ad Hoc Committee of Heads of State on Western Sahara, on this important question.
155.	Being in agreement with the conclusions and recommendations of that Committee, of which it is a member, the Revolutionary People's Republic of Guinea believes they should be put into effect. Also, the Party-State of Guinea is following, with confidence, the peace initiatives adopted at various levels outside the OAU as well as within it, to achieve a permanent solution which, we hope, will be constructive and beneficial, and also will redound to the advantage of all parties involved. The Revolutionary People's Republic of Guinea will spare no effort to reach that goal.
156.	With regard to the representation of Kampuchea, the leader responsible for our revolution, President Ahmed Sekou Toure, at the Sixth Conference of Heads of State or Government of Non-Aligned Countries, held in Havana from 3 to 9 September 1979, made a thorough analysis of this crisis. He concluded that, both in the non-aligned movement and in the United Nations, it is States that are represented and not regimes, and that consequently it is the Government in being, that of the People's Republic of Kampuchea, which should occupy the seat which belongs to it by right, not only at the Havana Conference, but also in our world Organization.
157.	It is because we do not wish to repeat past mistakes that we must, as President Ahmed Sekou Toure has shown, give to the Government established at Phnom Penh the seat among us which belongs to it by right. We fully understand the concern of those who invoke the violation of international law to oppose the restitution to the present government at Phnom Penh of its seat in the United Nations. They fear that the example of Kampuchea might be contagious, and might spread to other countries of South-East Asia. But in the opinion of our delegation, what is more dangerous than a foreign intervention is the fact that a Government, by its reactionary, antinational, anti-popular policy could raise the masses against itself, and irretrievably lose any credibility in their eyes. What our Organization must not lose sight of, and what must serve it as a lodestone each time it is to decide upon similar cases, which may unfortunately arise in future, is the awareness of the interests of the people concerned. Above all, may realism prevail here at the United Nations in New York with the recognition that there is in Phnom Penh a government which is governing in fact. The United Nations has pursued this unrealistic policy on another occasion by denying the great Chinese people its legitimate rights and representation. We came to realize that that policy does not pay. History is stubborn and does not repeat itself.
158.	Our country also ardently hopes that the differences between the People's Republic of China and the Socialist Republic of Viet Nam can be resolved through peaceful and sincere negotiations. We also hope that the talks begun by the Soviet Union and China will likewise result in satisfactory solutions that can safeguard the interests of those two friendly countries, peoples joined by history and geography whose destiny is linked in solidarity with all the peoples of the world, including the people of Guinea.
159.	The situation in the Middle East shows that the southern part of Africa is not the only place where blood is being shed. In that other area of the world, the Palestinian people are being deprived of their right to exist. Indeed, since the Balfour Declaration of 1917 that led to the creation of Israel, this region has known nothing but war. In our opinion, there is no need to dwell on the origins of this conflict, the persistent nature of which is a subject of great concern and anxiety for our Organization.
160.	Although we have never denied any people the right to existence, neither have we ever condoned this right's being exercised by denying the right to existence of another people.
161.	Israel must realize that the Palestinian people, whose sole legitimate representative is the PLO, will never renounce their inalienable national rights. In any negotiation for the over-all settlement of the Middle East crisis, the PLO must have the exclusive right to speak and act on behalf of Palestine,
162.	The security of Israel lies less in territorial conquests than in peaceful coexistence with all the States of the region on the basis of respect for the recognized right of the Palestinian people to establish an independent national State. The status of the Holy City of Jerusalem as the hallowed site of the three great monotheistic religions must also be scrupulously respected. Israel must proceed, finally, to the unconditional withdrawal of all its troops from all occupied Arab territories.
163.	In this connexion, our delegation considers that the Egyptian-Israeli agreements do not represent a real solution. For this reason, we support the holding of a special session of the General Assembly devoted to the question of Palestine as proposed at the Tenth Islamic Conference of Foreign Ministers, held at Fez last May, and we subscribe to the idea of convening, under the aegis of the Secretary-General, Mr. Kurt Waldheim, an international conference devoted to Palestine and the Middle East for the purpose of arriving at an over-all solution that would take into account the interests of all parties concerned.
164.	In the meanwhile, the international community must deal more resolutely with the record of Israel's repeated aggressions against Lebanon. We emphasize this because this situation contains the genuine seeds of a conflict with unforeseeable dimensions.
165.	Cyprus also continues to be a subject for concern in this Assembly. The delegation of Guinea considers that the territorial integrity, national unity and non- aligned character of that country must be protected. The discussions between the two communities that have yielded certain tangible results must be pursued under the aegis of the Secretary-General of our Organization.
166.	The question of Korea, furthermore, is of equal concern. Our position is well known: we consider that the withdrawal of all foreign troops is an essential prior condition for the Korean people to achieve reunification in peace, without any outside interference, The tragedy of a divided people such as the Korean and Comorian peoples affects the balance of the entire international community, which must promote only those things that can contribute to the realization of this aspiration to national unity.
167.	Our Organization must examine the fate of all peoples still being subjected to colonial domination and thus deprived of their inalienable right to self- determination in Africa, in Latin America, in the Caribbean and in Asia.
168.	We wish to take this opportunity to hail the resounding victory of the gallant peoples of Nicaragua and Iran, whose example cannot fail to be followed by other peoples under neo-colonialist dictatorships.
169.	The elimination of apartheid and an end to foreign intervention in the domestic affairs of the peoples of Africa, Asia and Latin America are preconditions to the establishment of true peace. In order to be genuine, detente must cover every region of our planet.
170.	Indeed, developing countries know that any threat to peace imperils their efforts to strengthen their national independence and ensure their economic development. They are thus the first to feel concern about the establishment of an international order based on relations of trust and free from the threat of war. Such an international order must abolish the parcelling of the world into zones of influence or conquest in which the right to exercise domination would be preserved. The tendency of certain Powers to extend their lines of security beyond their geographical borders and into regions of the world that come under their purported protection and influence is extremely dangerous. The Party-State of Guinea will never agree to be a part of this ploy or to submit to it. Our people have sufficient strength, determination and conviction to win respect for its will to independence and to resist any infringement of its sovereignty.
171.	On the question of disarmament, preceding speakers have laid sufficient emphasis on the evils of the arms race. My delegation fervently hopes that it will be brought to an end.
172.	We are pleased to quote in this connexion President Ahmed Se'kou Toure, who stated:
"The Revolutionary People's Republic of Guinea gives its unqualified support to all decisions which might operate in favour of a reduction in international tensions and the arms race. It is also determined to oppose any attempts to establish a status quo which would maintain the unacceptable differentiations, the existing inequalities and discriminations in the living conditions of peoples and in the relations established between nations."
173.	It is specifically in the economic field that these relations are particularly unjust. The present economic situation is characterized by: first, a steady deterioration in the relationship of forces which has been detrimental to the developing countries; secondly, the export of increasing monetary inflation from the North to the South, as the consequence of monetary disorders in the industrialized countries; thirdly, constant increases in the external debt of the developing countries, because they have to channel their economies into exports. Many other factors contribute to a widening gap between the industrialized countries and the developing countries.
174.	In the opinion of my delegation, the bitter truth is that, regardless of our approach to the issues, regardless of which bloc we give our sympathy to, there are always a few multinationals ready to turn their attention to us with our tacit or explicit connivance. The fact remains that, while we cannot be blamed for the existence of multinationals, we can be blamed for their persistence.
175.	The standstill in the North-South dialogue and in the discussions in UNCTAD, the meagre results of the renewed Lome Convention, should all serve to convince the developing countries that they must stand together and promote a new development policy. That new strategy must be pursued nationally, regionally and internationally. Nationally this requires, first, that the people of different countries should take control of the principal economic levers in the areas of industry, transport, energy and trade; secondly, an independent national currency should be created; thirdly, there must be agrarian reform aimed at the promotion of modern agriculture; fourthly, a dynamic industrial system in harmony with a policy of land management should be created; and fifthly, those segments of society, young people and women, who have heretofore been deprived of their legitimate economic and social roles, should be brought into the fight for development.
176.	We also believe that the advent of a new international economic order must lead to the creation of sub- regional and regional organizations. These institutions must serve to harmonize and integrate broader communities and bring them into the economic structures of our States, which have suffered from an arbitrary fragmentation giving rise to "micro-markets" barely, if at Si, viable. This form of co-operation must cover the following areas: transport, telecommunications, banking institutions, trade, the training of cadres and technical assistance.
177.	We welcome the existence of the Latin American Economic System and of the Economic Community of West African States. These institutions must be supported by associations of producers of raw materials, such as the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries and the International Bauxite Association, just to mention those two. When those conditions are met, then and only then will the developing countries be in a good position to negotiate in international forums.
178.	Notwithstanding the alarming situation which many representatives quite rightly have spoken about from this rostrum, my delegation believes that the international community must continue to be optimistic regarding positive results to be expected from the special session of the General Assembly in 1980 to be devoted to development problems.
179.	Concerning the new strategy, we can affirm, as a representative of the African continent among the officers of the Preparatory Committee for the New International Development Strategy, that, regarding the requirements of development, Africa will maintain the position which it has so often expressed at previous meetings of the Preparatory Committee. That position is that the future strategy must take into account not only the growing gap between the North and South but above all must advocate special and specific political measures to help the poorer countries of the South.
180.	On the initiative of President Ahmed Sekou Toure', the OAU decided in resolution AHG/Res. 96 (XVI) to convene in Lagos in 1980 a special summit session devoted exclusively to a thorough consideration of the economic situation in Africa, which is inseparable from the general economic situation in the entire world, with a view to defining the ways and means of promoting the economic integration of our continent.
181.	For all these reasons, my delegation is quite convinced that it is possible to create a new international economic order of benefit to the entire international community on the basis of justice, equality and mutual interest. ,
182.	The gravity of the world economic situation cannot turn our attention from the problem of the environment. Considering the harm done to nature by the development of the wealth of the subsoil, we welcome the draft convention on the preservation of nature which Zaire is planning to submit to our States for consideration.
183.	As regards the measures being considered by the United Nations to help the Sudano-Sahelian region, my country will give special attention to any plan of action aimed at ensuring, first, the rational management and exploitation of water, soil and vegetation resources; secondly, the rational management and development of pasture-land; and, thirdly, reafforestation.
184.	The Revolutionary People's Republic of Guinea is the primary water source of West Africa, and it is now accepted that the success of any campaign to combat the drought in the Sahelian sub region requires the development in Guinea of the Futa catchment basin, the source of the largest waterways in our part of the world. The sixteenth ordinary session of the OAU Assembly adopted a decision on the development of that basin. We are convinced that international support and the co-operation of the States of the Sahel will not be withheld from us, that the Economic Community of West African States will also enjoy assistance in their fight against the drought and that that assistance will be forthcoming from the entire international community.
185.	The United Nations Charter and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights were proclaimed long ago, but it is less than seven years since the question of the protection of human rights was included in our agenda and the debate on this subject took on a special nature and world-wide scope. We find that development heartening and encouraging. Our countries have a duty firmly to support any action to bring about the triumph of causes that concern mankind all over the world. We, for our part, will support any action to strengthen the cause of human rights anywhere in the world.
186.	However, , my delegation believes that our Organization can usher in a world where human rights are respected only if countries reach agreement on a global approach to the cause of human rights throughout the world. How can we reconcile the concept of a selective discriminatory approach to the rights of the individual, in which human rights are defended only when there is political profit to be gained from it, with a global concept which views human rights as fundamental and indivisible and part of the larger problem of the rights of peoples?
187.	We firmly believe that the cause of human rights necessarily has certain limits owing to the fact that man's much proclaimed universality is not yet matched, in our contemporary society, by a universal respect for man's rights. There is a deep-rooted discrepancy between the rights recognized to every man— whether white, black, yellow, rich or poor—and the rights that he actually enjoys in daily life. It must be courageously recognized that a single standard is not applied in today's world, although man's nature may be said to be universal and the same everywhere. We do not wish thereby to deny the spiritual and material dimensions of man as an individual; but those dimensions cannot be correctly evaluated without taking into account the political and social dimensions of man and the political and social conditions in which he lives.
188.	In the light of those considerations it will be more easily understood why our country chose to organize in the first half of November 1978 an international ideological symposium in the course of which the questions of human rights and the rights of peoples were debated. The official records of that symposium give preference to the rights of peoples over human rights—or, more accurately, they defined what is the correct approach to human rights by viewing human rights as part of the larger problem of the rights of peoples. To make clear the basic theses of that symposium, we wish to say that we cannot ferociously defend human rights without first doing whatever is necessary to eradicate apartheid in South Africa; to do away with the power of the white racist minority in Rhodesia; to restore the rights of the Namibian people; to put an end to the crime of killing civilian populations in Mozambique, Angola, Zambia and Botswana, resulting from bombings by white racists in South Africa and Rhodesia. How can we seriously claim to defend human rights elsewhere and at the same time allow the Palestinian people to have their rights erased from the records of mankind, including their right to existence? Is there any right more sacred than that? How can we effectively ensure the defence of human rights elsewhere if, closer to us in the Middle East, entire peoples are humiliated because their territories are occupied and Lebanon is being bombarded by Israel? Does not the defence of human rights involve also the defence of the right to a decent life for entire peoples? When we see the industrialized countries at the fifth session of UNCTAD at Manila and the African, Caribbean and Pacific countries meeting at Brussels flatly refusing to recognize the elementary economic rights of the peoples of the third world, we cannot help but wonder whether the selfishness of the industrialized Powers is not also a denial of human rights.
189.	It would be a fine thing if those self-same crusaders for human rights were to declare war on all the injustices of our century, which might very well appear in the eyes of posterity to be the most cruel century in human history. Now that we are on the threshold of the third millennium, the future of mankind depends not only on the ability of our generation to solve the problems of development but also on our ability to remove from our world anything that mutilates the human person and peoples. Man cannot achieve great things on earth if he does not first face up to his many woes in all their dimensions—political, social, economic and spiritual.
190.	The Party-State of Guinea has given close attention to the problem of integrating segments of society, young people and women, who have hitherto not been permitted to play their due role in the economic and social spheres, in the struggle I have described.
191.	Thus, within the framework of the International Year of the Child proclaimed in resolution 31/169 of 21 December 1976, the Revolutionary People's Republic of Guinea set up in 1978 a national commission to prepare for the year under the presidency of Comrade Andree Toure, the wife of our Chief of State.
192.	A few of the accomplishments of that commission, which has now become a permanent institution, are the adoption of a code protecting children, the issuance of a postage stamp, the creation of weekly educational radio and television programmes for children, the printing of story-books, the creation of playgrounds, the holding of a fair, exhibitions of children's works, and a national seminar on the sexual problems of youth, juvenile delinquency, the responsibility of parents for the education of their children, and the role of the organs of the Party-State.
193.	We also welcome the fact that the international community seems now to be clearly in favour of restoring the right of women to participate in the political, economic and social life of nations.
194.	In Guinea, women played a paramount role in our struggle for national liberation, and they have exercised their full rights on an equal footing with men in all activities of the national life.
195.	Our delegation fully supports the Draft Convention on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women that our Organization is now preparing, and we are convinced that it will lead to the elimination of all barriers to the full development of women's potential.
196.	In conclusion, we believe that the experience we have acquired during the 35 years of the existence of our Organization should make it possible for us to live up to the hopes that were placed in it when it was created.
197.	Although the record in the area of decolonization is positive inasmuch as two thirds of the countries represented here were languishing under colonial domination when our Organization was created, the same cannot be said of the record in other areas.
198.	Hotbeds of tension in southern Africa, in the Middle East, in South-East Asia and in other areas of the world and the stagnation in economic negotiations are challenges to our Organization requiring urgent and effective action by it.
199.	If these problems are to be solved, there must be a complete overhauling of the structures of the United Nations Charter.
200.	We understand why, under the Charter, the major Powers have been given a special responsibility and obligation in the maintenance of peace and security in the world. It is a fact that they have in their hands the means of mass destruction, which threaten peace, but the defence and preservation of peace cannot be considered to fall exclusively within the province of any Power.
201.	That is why the United Nations Charter needs to be revised and needs all the structures and strength necessary for it to be more effective. We wonder whether the right to raise objections that is given to some in world affairs, an exorbitant right compared to the rights of the overwhelming majority, should continue to be exercised in our Organization, which preaches democracy and equality among all Members.
202.	However that may be, we wish to reaffirm the fierce determination of the Revolutionary People's Republic of Guinea to join other nations in trying to ensure that reason will prevail over force and that justice will prevail over power.


Mr. President, to extend to you congratulations upon your election to the presidency of this session of the General Assembly is for me no mere fulfilment of a tradition. The bonds of great fraternal solidarity between our two countries and the shared aspirations of our two peoples are the sources of the pride and pleasure Guyana feels at your assumption of this high office. Further, Mr. President, your election is in recognition of your unswerving commitment to the principles and purposes of the Charter of this Organization, of your rich experience and your considerable talents and consummate skills, but above all, of your broad vision as a humanist striving for a world in which exploitation is no more and in which alt can grow to their full stature. If I may be allowed to strike a somewhat more personal note, it will be to recall with the greatest satisfaction the years which you and I shared, working in tandem in this Organization. These recollections, Mr. President, serve to reinforce Guyana's conviction that, under your guidance and with your counsel, the business of this thirty-fourth session of the General Assembly will be efficiently discharged.
70.	It is appropriate at this stage, Mr. President, that I should place on record Guyana's appreciation of the serenity with which your predecessor, Mr. Indalecio Lievano of Colombia, conducted the work of the last session, and of the success which attended his efforts.
71.	As we look back over the past year, we must recall with particular sadness the loss of two distinguished leaders of the developing world, Mr. Houari Bourne- diene, the President of the People's Republic of Algeria, and Mr. Agostinho Neto, the President of the People's Republic of Angola. Their memory will be cherished wherever men speak of peace, justice and political and economic emancipation.
72.	Looking forward to the year ahead of us, it is with especial pleasure that Guyana welcomes the admission to our Organization of the sister Commonwealth Caribbean territory of Saint Lucia, with which we share a common history of colonialism and exploitation and with which we work closely together in the councils of the Caribbean community.
73.	As in the past, this general debate is providing the occasion for a searching analysis of the condition of man at a particular moment in time. Clearly, old problems remain, and new situations requiring international attention have arisen.
74.	The persistence of old problems and the thrust of new ones seem to call into question the collective capacity of the international community to articulate solutions and to implement them. Indeed, many of the declarations, resolutions and programmes of action reflective of our joint experience and wisdom have languished unimplemented.
75.	Within this chamber there has been struck on occasion a note expressive of uncertainty and of the lack of a sense of direction. Some have even conveyed the feeling that the moorings of the international ship of state have been cut and that it is adrift in uncharted seas.
76.	It may be that reflections of such moods are responses characteristic of the end of a time-rhythm—the decade, the millennium. But it may be as well that the roots of such feelings lie in the nature of the international system and the manner in which its actors, both national and non-national, comport themselves in pursuit of often contradictory objectives.
77.	Yet not all the voices which have been heard from this podium have conveyed a mood of groping, of un-certainty. We need to ponder carefully the reasons for these differentiated responses.
78.	In Guyana's view, out of this general debate must emerge the identification of the constraints on international co-operation and of the obstacles to the development of greater international understanding. If this were done, and if there were a measure of broad consensus, this thirty-fourth session of the General Assembly could represent a true turning-point in human affairs.
79.	No one can contest that the two most profound revolutions of this century have been that of October 1917, in the Soviet Union and the post-colonial revolution, the vibrancy of which reverberates throughout the international milieu.
80.	The first not only offered an alternative strategy for the internal development of societies, but also promulgated an entirely new system of values with which the then dominant form of international organization had to contend. The most striking result of this challenge was the cold war. But its reality, albeit in a different form, continues today.
81.	The second revolution involves the majority of the Members of this Organization. It continues to enrich the international community through the insights and experiences of diverse peoples. It has advanced universality based on sovereign equality. It has made possible the concept of a planetary community. And, above all, the articulation of the legitimate aspirations and objectives of that second revolution brought into focus the selectivity of affluence reflected in the divide between the rich North and the South where the poor live in the shadow of reality.
82.	These revolutions registered advances towards the democratization of the world order and exerted influence on the international system, a system in which this universal actor, the United Nations, properly utilized, could play a leadership and catalytic role.
83.	In large measure, the desire of the post-colonial States for the maintenance and consolidation of their independence, for the elimination of imperialism and colonialism, for the establishment of equitable international economic relations and for the creation of conditions for a secure peace found expression in the policy of non-alignment.
84.	But while these two great revolutions have been global in their range and in the transformations which they have effected, the present legacy of the international system is one of profound cleavages and discontinuities. These complexities which the international community presently confronts include the persistence of imperialism with its structures of dependency and supportive networks, among which numbered the mass media, the spiralling of nuclear arms technology, which buttresses the immediate post-war bipolar division, and the new patterns of ideological behaviour.
85.	Yet somehow there seems to be, beneath the turbulence, positive elements for change which provide the basis for new forms of co-operation which can take into account the desirability of peaceful coexistence.
86.	In more recent times, there has been growing acknowledgement of the diffusion of power within the global society. Two years ago this was recognized at the meeting of Commonwealth Prime Ministers in London. More recently it was reflected in the report of the Secretary-General of our Organization, Mr. Kurt Waldheim, who has so consistently served the cause of peace. In his report to us this year, the Secretary- General said, inter alia: "The international scene has never been more complex nor the old concepts of power so diffused"
87.	If we were to disaggregate the elements of power today, we will find that the power to destroy humanity is not necessarily coincidental with the power to ensure justice and equality. The elements of power are no longer located in any one national entity or a small group of national entities. Indeed, there are new centres of power—financial, economic and moral.
88.	The real question before us is how to build on these growth points and to maximize the potential, nay the inevitability, of a global approach which, in taking account of our separate national interests, serves the wider purpose of the international community.
89.	The field of disarmament reflects the dichotomies which we face as we seek to grapple with the more complex model of international organization which the present realities portend. If we integrate into the concept of security the profound changes in attitudes to resource utilization, political pluralism, and technology itself, are some of us not still imprisoned by a perception of security which does not go beyond the building of isolated fortresses within national societies? Any commitment to disarmament in today's world is meaningless if it rests at the threshold of arms limitation. For the ramparts that are built on such assumptions are not founded on the satisfaction of human wants at the elemental level. Such a situation results in an armed peace which, in the pursuit of national survival, could encompass the destruction of the entire human race.
90.	Similarly, the global application of detente is a prerequisite for its universal acceptance. It is necessary to ensure that detente in its operational parameters should not be limited to the European theatre. Thus we must insist that, if and when it is invoked outside Europe, it is not interpreted to mean either the observance of so-called spheres of influence, or privately negotiated codes of behaviours. For such action is, in essence, an attempt to preserve a status quo, which is inconsistent with the aspirations of the majority of the world's peoples.
91.	Dramatic examples of the dilemma we face as a result of our failure to transcend the constraints to which I have alluded are the continued division of the Korean people, despite their quest for reunification without outside interference, and the apparent stalemate which besets the people of the small non-aligned State of Cyprus in their desire to be united and to rid their country of foreign occupation.
92.	The situation in southern Africa is no less reflective of the conflicts which have so far inhibited collective international efforts for just and equitable change.
93.	The Fascist regime in Pretoria has, since its ignominious defeat in Angola, effected tactical shifts in its over-all objective of economic and strategic supremacy in southern Africa. The pace of bantustanization has been accelerated, starting with the Transkei in 1976. The so-called internal settlements in Namibia and Zimbabwe have been promoted as part of a grand South African design for an edifice of puppet States behind which a white redoubt can be kept intact.
94.	The cardinal objective of apartheid is the protection of settler interests in South Africa—interests which are buttressed internationally by class links.
95.	The liquidation of apartheid would substantially assist the forces of liberation throughout southern Africa. But its elimination is not a necessary condition for the reconquest of freedom and independence by the peoples of Zimbabwe and Namibia. In relation to the former, the conjuncture of the declining economic base of a shrinking white minority and the pressures of the freedom fighters, led by the Patriotic Front, has made the present Conference in London possible. Let us hope that this particular opportunity for a negotiated settlement will be effectively utilized for ensuring the full transfer of genuine power to the majority of the people of that country. In this way, further bloodshed, in a war where the victory of the Patriotic Front is inevitable, can be avoided.
96.	Similarly, the efforts of the five Western countries, the major trading partners of South Africa, to effect a negotiated settlement must not compromise the genuine aspirations of the people of Namibia, led by their authentic representatives, the South West Africa People's Organization. The white tribes of South Africa must be given no succour for perpetual illegal dominion.
97.	Apartheid has been roundly and universally condemned. While moral suasion is a legitimate tool of pressure for desirable change, it is apposite to assert that the cardinal underpinning of apartheid is economic. Racism is a derivative of that essential condition. Like slavery before it, apartheid will be effectively terminated when it becomes unsustainable as a form of economic organization.
98.	The oppressed people of South Africa are waging a bitter struggle to achieve precisely that objective. For its part, the United Nations must maintain a multifaceted attack on apartheid, and it is in this context that Guyana contends, and has done so consistently, that mandatory sanctions under Chapter VII of the Charter will hasten the collapse of the structure of apartheid.
99.	In the Middle East a lasting peace is still elusive, and this despite the fact that the foundations for such a peace have long been identified. Pivotal to any search for a just settlement must be the restoration of the national rights of the Palestinian people, their full involvement in that search through their sole legitimate representatives, the PLO, and the universal acknowledgement of their right to a home and State of their own in Palestine. It is Guyana's hope that, ere this Assembly ends, there would be no more equivocation on the just rights of the Palestinian people. Meanwhile, we must condemn Israeli aggression against Lebanon and lend our full support to the people of that country in their present travail.
100.	While the constraints that I have mentioned have been operated to hinder international co-operation, there has been contemporaneously an unheralded emergence of issues and values of a global character. These include the maintenance of the environment as a life-support system, the need to devise a new regime for the seas, an effective system of world food security, the supervision of multinational corporations and the elimination of both over-development and underdevelopment. These challenges have led to a number of global consultations under the auspices of this Organization. Global programmes have been formulated and, in some instances, new norms identified.
101.	It is the contradiction between new global norms and the maintenance of attitudes and practices which are inconsistent with present-day imperatives that has served to retard effective action in the establishment of the New International Economic Order.
102.	If we were to reflect on the mood of the international community earlier in this decade, when there appeared global consensus on the way forward in inter-national economic relations, it would be to perceive that this development was effected by the energy catalyst and the circumstances which inspired it. For a while thereafter it appeared—to some of us, at least— that the degree of international economic co-operation which was necessary for the implementation of the programmes of action agreed upon was both possible and realizable. But the hopes that the sixth and seventh special sessions aroused for the early implementation of the New International Economic Order were not sustained. The course of subsequent events and the resurgence of intransigent attitudes dramatically demonstrated this reality. Some minimal gains were made. I refer, for example, to the Common Fund and the agreement on debt in relation to the least developed countries. But in so many areas there was no progress.
103.	As we come to the end of the decade of the 1970s, it seems that both in magnitude and range the economic problems which afflict the world's communities—East and West, North and South—are of such dimensions as perhaps to be insoluble in terms of the present collective measures and approaches.
104.	The upcoming negotiations in the early 1980s present the international community with a clear opportunity for co-operative action. Let us profit from our experience of the failure and disappointment of the 1970s. The forthcoming negotiations must not be approached as previous ones on the New International Economic Order when stratagems were utilized to maintain an old order while using the rhetoric of the new. On the contrary, the approach must take fully into account the new global imperatives, otherwise the decade of the 1980s may well be worse than that of the 1970s.
105.	As we begin the preparations for the important negotiations which 1980 will herald, it is to the goal of wider co-operation that I suggest our energies be directed. The year 1980 will mark the third time the international community will initiate a development decade with a hopefully appropriate international development strategy.
106.	Of special importance, as part of a proposed global round of negotiations, will be the United Nations Conference on New and Renewable Sources of Energy to be held in 1981. The approach to this Conference must be based on recognition of the rights of the producers, the finiteness of the oil resource, its over- consumption by some industrialized States, the special vulnerability of some oil-importing States and the urgent need to alleviate their situation of crisis and, finally, the need to develop globally new and/or renewable resources of energy.
107.	One of the consequences of the present situation of persistent dysfunction in the international economic system has been the universalization of the awareness of the true dimension and nature of interdependence. It may be that with this development a new opportunity presents itself for a collective definition of the mutuality of interests which will banish for ever arrangements based on domination and exploitation.
108.	If I am right about the potential of these new circumstances, then it is essential that before we embark on a global round of negotiations we should seek to establish the pre-conditions for success. One such is the inevitability of the further diffusion of power within the international system. This is but one of the consequences that will flow from growing South-South cooperation. Similarly, the relations which are increasingly being built between countries of different social, political and economic systems will impact on the distribution of power itself within the international system.
109.	And there are other essential verities which we should acknowledge together and which should inform our attitudes to these forthcoming negotiations. I do not propose an exhaustive list, but I believe that recognition of the following is indispensable: (i) that usable power is no longer the monopoly of a few; (ii) that in terms of demographic trends, the presently rich nations of the world are a shrinking minority; (iii) that technology, including nuclear technology, cannot for ever be monopolized by a few; (iv) and that the maintenance and growth of high levels of economic activity in the affluent North must be premised on the development of the developing countries themselves.
110.	The policy of non-alignment and the movement of countries which practice that policy are universally recognized as an independent factor with a positive influence in the international system. Those of us who subscribe to that policy—which has provided a strategic alternative to multilateral alliances rooted in military power—have been consistently advocating the need for a system of international relations which is survival-oriented, democratic, equitable and just.
111.	Even though our efforts in international organization have resulted in sometimes uneven success, it is yet undeniable that in the several forums in which we pursue our objectives new norms have emerged which have as their fundamental constituency the global polity. It may be that the time has come when we should attempt to devise an international contract bringing together into a single document the norms of genuine interdependence of requirements in a planetary community and the essentials for the new global round of negotiations.
112.	Guyana, a small, non-aligned, socialist State, stands ready to participate constructively in advancing the cause of international co-operation.