97. I shall not attempt to conceal the emotion I feel at being for the first time here in these august surroundings. And I fervently hope that this feeling will not prevent me from expressing as I would like my pride and joy at being among you who bear the overwhelming responsibility for the pursuit, the organization and the maintenance of international peace and security.
98. Allow me at the outset, Mr. President, to congratulate you on your election to the Presidency of the current session of the General Assembly, whose work is beginning at a time when the world is beset by so many burning issues. Above and beyond your personal success and the due homage paid to your qualifications as a statesman, your election is a special sign of friendship towards your country, that crossroads of civilizations which, in the course of its history has played, discreetly and successfully, the difficult part of a link for Europe. What is more, your election symbolizes the needs of a mankind weary of sterile divisions and longing for concord.
99. No one is more qualified than you are to continue the fruitful efforts of your predecessor, the distinguished representative of Afghanistan, who for an entire year, in regular session and in the special sessions of your Assembly, was able to temper the heat of the debates with those well-known qualities of moderation and conciliation which have characterized the history of his country and of Asia.
100. From that same continent of Asia has come to us the man whom I take personal pleasure In acclaiming on behalf of my country and of the young African nations: the Secretary-General of the United Nations, U Thant. May I therefore pay a deserved and very special tribute to this man who has for many years in your Assembly been entrusted with the heaviest of responsibilities and who has ceaselessly struggled in the cause of peace with unflagging zeal and an equal courage.
101. And this is why — since we know that history is made solely by man — your present deliberations are beginning under the best of auspices, and why they have already roused so much hope throughout the world.
102. The African Heads of State who have preceded me at this rostrum have laid before you with precision, eloquence and sometimes with passion their national problems and their opinions on the destiny of Africa and of the world. I do not intend to repeat or to comment on what has already been said, of all of which you are fully aware.
103. But my threefold position as Chief of State, Acting President of the Conseil de l’entente and of the Common Afro-Malagasy Organization, imposes on me a certain oratorical discretion and obliges me to express to you only the basic concerns of my own country, of the member States of those organizations and, in a general way, of an important part of the African continent.
104. I should like first of all, as Chief of State, publicly to express the thanks of the people of Niger and the Government of the Republic of Niger to those two friendly countries; France and Tunisia, whose Governments were good enough to sponsor our admission to the United Nations.
105. It was historically fitting that the great emancipator, General de Gaulle, should have, at the appointed time, guided the evolution of the countries over which France had long held trusteeship, and should have carried out, through a policy of full co-operation, the work already begun in so many areas.
106. With regard to Tunisia, President Borguiba has shown us continuing sympathy because of historical, cultural and religious bonds and because of the unity of outlook and attitudes we share on the main international problems.
107. To you, the competent representatives of your Governments, and most especially to you, the United States delegate representing President Johnson — whose kind invitation happily coincides with my presence here in your great Assembly — I wish to express Niger's thanks for the unanimous vote which confirmed its admission to the United Nations seven years ago [resolution 1482 (XV)].
108. Mr. President and representatives, your noble mission consists above all in working untiringly for the reign of a world of peace on earth. For in our time more than in any other, peace has become the cardinal necessity for a mankind anxious about its future. But to achieve peace today is far from easy. It calls for courage and clear vision, firmness and tolerance; but above all, it calls for a passionate love of mankind, of man's vast spiritual and material wealth, in short, of his future.
109. I therefore solemnly call upon all the Members of this Assembly, especially the representatives of the great Powers, who are ultimately responsible for world peace, but also on all States whose national interests are today engaged in a major conflict, to be alive to the needs of the hour which demand of us international accord and co-operation on a global level. In our century, it is no longer permissible to put above all else the philosophy of integral nationalism, for no national interest, however noble, would justify the holocaust of a world conflict which might at any moment be set off by some local conflict. The danger of nuclear war, that unprecedented terror hanging over the future of our world, should lead us, if we want simply to survive, to revise completely our traditional political concepts and international relations. I am convinced that the Governments of all countries are aware of those radical changes and of the seriousness of the present moment. It is for you, Gentlemen, patiently and unremittingly, to translate that unanimous will for peace into reality. Such is the difficult but stirring task which is yours, for if our planet is to survive, everyone must make that heroic and unique effort.
110. However, if that effort is to be made with some hope of success, the entire world must face the facts, for everyone's salvation depends on it: the guns must be silenced everywhere; justice, stability and co-operation must be established in the Middle East; the men and women of Africa and Asia must regain their full measure of freedom and dignity in the territories still under foreign occupation or subjected to the immoral and obsolete practices of another world; the dangerous consequences of the cold war must disappear in Europe and Asia, and there must be a revival everywhere of the confidence and spirit of co-operation in the relations between men, nations and continents.
111. It is clear, however, that the quest for peace and the organization and maintenance of peace in the world which it is your noble mission to ensure, also calls for the examination and solution of the economic problems which give rise to imbalance, tensions and conflicts and which threaten to give rise to serious international crises with the inevitable dire consequences we are familiar with: losses of human life, material destruction, retardation, stagnation and regression on the road to development.
112. More than any others, and regardless of the political label they assume, the African States realize the need to emerge from underdevelopment as soon as possible and to replace their role as passive clients with that of producers in the fullest sense of the word, producers capable of active participation, with their resources and through their labour, in the life of men of other continents. In short, Africa believes that the dignity it has regained cannot assume its full significance if political independence is not matched by ever-increasing integration with the economy of the highly industrialized countries.
113. Is it not paradoxical and — I may say — discouraging that the effort of the African producer is not fairly recompensed? The incontrovertible fact remains that despite the adoption of improved techniques, despite the growth of his productivity, despite the increase in his production, the African peasant sees a constant decrease in his purchasing power as a result of the continual decline in the world prices of his surface and sub-surface export products, cocoa, peanuts, cotton, and coffee among others.
114. I have already spoken elsewhere of the danger of that reduction in the monetary income of the African peasant, both in its effect on the public resources of States and in its more distant effect on their economic activities and even on their political stability. Quite recently, at the Fourth Session of the Assembly of Heads of State and Government of the Organization of African Unity at Kinshasa, I stated:
"The reduction of the monetary income of the African producer simultaneously leads to a weakening of the State, as a result of the reduction in export revenues: the impaired budgetary equilibrium inevitably holds up national development and, by keeping our countries economically dependent on the outside, endangers national independence."
115. Many African nations, threatened sooner or later by some sort of economic debility, are no longer concerned merely with the problem of harmonious and continuous development under calm conditions, but with that of survival in a world where the gap between industrial and under-developed countries is growing ever wider.
116. From that viewpoint, the interest of all great Powers — and by "interest" I mean economic as well as political interest — should oblige them to take into account the question of their solidarity with those weaker than themselves, to overcome national self-interests and to do everything in their power to assist the development of the Third World, without which their own development would be incomplete and threatened with instability.
117. It would therefore seem desirable that the Assembly, through its specialized agencies, should seek ways and means which will lead to the re- evaluation of agricultural and mining production on a proper scale, and then to price stabilization in those fields. At the same time, that basic action must be accompanied by increased long-term, low-interest financial participation, by the rat tonal organization of commercial markets and by an increase in technical co-operation staff.
118. Only a short while ago at Rio de Janeiro, the President of the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development set forth some facts and figures which unfortunately bear out what I have just said: today, in the case of the bulk of countries receiving development aid, repayment of past official indebtedness alone absorbs two-thirds of the official flow of capital towards those countries. Similarly, he pointed out, nearly half of the existing debt is in the form of supply credits, which in many cases must be repaid even before the materials they finance have begun to contribute in any appreciable way to the productivity of the borrowing country. It is absolutely indispensable that a solution should be found, that new formulas should be adopted which will increase the efficiency of assistance from industrialized to under-developed countries. Otherwise, the gap separating them will continue to widen, with consequences which could in the long run be disastrous to both sides.
119. It is almost embarrassing to have to renew this appeal and repeat this warning. Fortunately, there are in the developed countries some distinguished thinkers who are trying, along with us, to awaken leaders and public opinion in their own countries to the true nature of this serious problem. Too few people, in fact, know that the material assistance given to less favoured countries by wealthy countries, in a spirit of solidarity quite new in history, an assistance which in absolute figures seems impressive to the layman, is to a great extent cancelled out by the phenomenon of deterioration in the terms of trade which I have referred to. It is urgent that this should be remedied, first by stabilizing the cost of basic commodities — the main source of income in underdeveloped countries — and then by facilitating their export.
120. I am happy to pay a simultaneous tribute here to the French Government and to the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development, both of which have proposed that the industrialized countries should annually devote 1 per cent of their gross national income to aid for the Third World. That peaceful effort would be, after all, quite modest compared to the effort being expended by those same States in bearing the excessive burden of their arms expenditures.
121. However, it cannot be denied that African economic development and social progress cannot be fully realized so long as Africa remains an isolated arena in which the ideologies and interests of non-African Powers have confronted and continue to confront each other.
122. Above all else, the African continent needs stability and peace, which our peoples deeply long for.
123. Specifically African organizations, such as the Organization of African Unity, and, within it, the Conseil de l'entente and the Joint Africa-Malagasy Community, have adopted as principles the noninterference of one State in the internal affairs of others and the rejection of the use of force for the settling of disputes.
124. The tensions, convulsions and conflicts to be observed at present in certain parts of Africa may, unfortunately, lead to pessimistic conclusions as to Africans' ability to integrate peacefully into the modern world.
125. But did not those human groupings which in the course of history became firmly structured modern nations endure throughout the centuries invasions, religious wars, wars of secession, onslaughts of xenophobia, national or racial hatred, coups d'état, manifestos and, only recently, genocide?
126. The African States are experiencing the same growing pains as did their predecessors and for that reason they must be judged with understanding and with tolerance. They alone should not be held responsible for their difficulties, Countless events which have ravaged the African continent would perhaps not have occurred had the principle of non-interference been scrupulously respected by all non-African Powers.
127. Here I shall stop, in order not to be reproached with slowing even slightly the work of your session, towards which the eyes of the whole world are turned.
128. May your institution be assured of the liveliest interest which Niger in particular, and Africa in general, take In its deliberations, for our continent, relegated for so long to an inferior and undeserved position, is determined to labour in the spirit and letter of the United Nations Charter, to which we have solemnly adhered and which remains our supreme hope. Long live the United Nations Organization! Long live international co-operation! Long live the brotherhood of mankind in a peaceful world!