Allow me, Mr. President, to add the voice of the Kingdom of Laos to the chorus of warm congratulations addressed to you from this rostrum. Your election to the high office of President of this eighteenth session of the General Assembly bears eloquent witness to your outstanding ability. In your person, I salute Latin America, which has contributed so extensively to the work of peace and co-operation undertaken by the United Nations. I am firmly convinced that you will direct our proceedings with wisdom and competence.
2. I should also like to express our appreciation to your predecessor, Muhammad Zafrulla Khan, who discharged his duties with such dignity and mastery.
3. It is a pleasure for me to pay tribute to the Secretary-General, U Thant, whose tireless efforts have strengthened the authority of the United Nations.
4. This is the first time that I have had the honour of speaking before this Assembly. I shall do so frankly and with feeling, aware as I am of the importance of this debate and of the decisive role of our Organization in the maintenance of peace.
5. This year we begin our work under more favourable auspices than in 1962, and it is my hope that the eighteenth session will prove to be the turning-point from which we shall go forward to a just and equitable solution of the problems facing us.
6. Last year, developments engendered by the cold war had brought about a sudden deterioration in international relations, which threatened to degenerate into armed conflict. But while the former hearths of war —in Algeria, the Congo, Cuba and West Irian— have now passed into history, other hotbeds of tension remain in the Middle East, in certain parts of Africa and in Southeast Asia, and their embers cast an alarming light on the international scene.
7. Nevertheless, there do exist grounds for satisfaction and hope which warrant a certain feeling of optimism, since in the last analysis everyone desires peace. We were therefore happy to hear Mr. Gromyko tell us, in his speech of yesterday [1208th meeting], that the Soviet Government had accepted certain proposals made by the United States Government with a view to the achievement of general and complete disarmament. The statement which the President of the United States made this morning [1209th meeting] to this Assembly was also pregnant with the promise of a better future.
8. The Moscow Treaty providing for a partial ban on nuclear tests, which has been approved by the vast majority of nations, has Illustrated the virtues of negotiation and contact. It affords us an opportunity of paying tribute to the wisdom of the great political leaders who, despite their basic differences on many problems, were able jointly to lay the important foundations for an agreement which, we ardently hope, will prove a prelude to universal peace.
9. Although this Treaty leaves intact the nuclear arsenal owned by a very few Powers, we can see that it reflects a trend towards general detente, and possibly towards the end of the cold war, that source of unrest and evil. Hence our optimism and our hope for peaceful coexistence. But such coexistence must not remain a mere catchword for use by the strong or for employment in a policy of domination. It must be made a reality, by specific action. There can be no coexistence without mutual respect for the integrity and sovereignty of States, without genuine renunciation of policies of interference, without straightforward co-operation.
10. As the representative of a small country, I wish to reaffirm here our faith in the United Nations. Weak though it may be, the United Nations remains the repository of mankind's ideals. It is not merely the forum for the exchange of views which often seem to be irreconcilable; it is, amid drama and paradox, the vehicle of that collective moral force which has hitherto succeeded in mastering uncontrolled influences and anarchical excesses.
11. Although it has survived many trials, we must not overlook the need to revise the operation of the Charter in the light of present-day realities. The question here is that of maintaining a proper balance between different forces. There is no doubt but that an adequate place must be given, in our collective life, to the numerous peoples which have just emerged into freedom. Following on the well-known Bandung Conference, the important conference held last spring at Addis Ababa has demonstrated the strength of this new force which is in process of organization and will have to be reckoned with once these newly independent countries have achieved political stability.
12. The ideal of a lasting peace in brotherhood and harmony cannot be realized amid servitude and duress. It is shocking to witness how outworn colonialism in its most backward form still persists, disguised, in certain parts of Africa, where the struggle for the liberation of the oppressed population is going forward. But its position is being rendered daily more uncomfortable, and it will soon be swept away by the tidal wave of nationalism and by the decisive action of the free forces of all countries.
13. Elsewhere, racial discrimination, that by-product of colonialism which continues to defy the conscience of civilized peoples, must be resolutely condemned. The shameful practices which have been elevated into an official doctrine are an insult to human dignity and a flagrant violation of the United Nations Charter.
14. I alluded just now to our domestic problems which, as is well known, have been settled outside the United Nations. However, since Laos is a Member of this Organization, it is my duty to talk to you about them in order to sum up the situation.
15. All the nations here represented are familiar with the events which have darkened the political scene in Laos since its emancipation. I would have wished simply to express here the hopes and fears of a small people which would have preferred to live according to its traditions and temperament. But alas, for over twenty years now, my country, which the dictates of fate have placed in the path of controversy, has remained a prey to violence and disorder, despite the settlements achieved at Geneva in 1954 and 1962.
16. Since 1954, at a time when our people might have looked forward to a period of freedom and fruitful labour, at a time when the French forces had evacuated our national territory, other, more unobtrusive troops have replaced them against the will of our people, in order to support a handful of revolutionaries in the name of a so-called war of national liberation.
17. This war, willed and maintained from abroad, has been of a devastating nature. It is planned and promoted in quarters characteristic, of the fact that certain countries have an interest in seeing our country a prey to disorder because, with such disorder, it would be possible to set up an authoritarian regime which nobody in Laos wants. This policy of interference has in fact led to an uninterrupted series of disorders. Thus it has come about that Laos, against its will, has for many years been the scene of a war which would never have broken out if someone had not started giving arms to certain misguided people who are all the more dangerous because they represent no one.
18. My country is small and weak. It has never meddled in the affairs of others. Its only ambition is to live in peace and good understanding with all its neighbours. The Agreements of 1954 gave it independence, and those of 1962 guaranteed its neutrality and unity; but both sets of agreements have done no more than secure for it a truce between two conflicts, between two cease-fires. Peace in Laos, therefore, is still confined to the realm of hope and uncertainty.
19. Yet the agreement on neutrality, which last year evoked so great a measure of approval and satisfaction throughout the Kingdom, should have led to reconciliation and concord. That agreement, which put an end to fratricidal strife and rivalry, and at the same time to foreign intervention in every form, should have marked the beginning of a new era in the process of building up the nation. It is in neutrality that Laos must find a chance of survival. The neutrality of Laos is not just an intellectual concept. It is in keeping with the dictates of our country's geography and with the pacific traditions of our people. Beyond that framework lie only risk and territorial amputation or mutilation. That is the pathetic truth.
20. Since April 1963, Laos has become the scene of new disorders. The fighting which provides the background to this sad chapter has flared up again almost everywhere. The optimism in which the Laotian people had found solace is giving way to doubt and anxiety. Everything is being called in question once more —even the foundations of our State. The implementation of the Geneva Agreements has been blocked by the obstructionism of some and the obstinacy of others. The International Commission for supervision and control, consisting of India, Canada and Poland, which was set up at Geneva in 1954 and made responsible for supervising the orderly implementation of those Agreements, has rarely been able to take any positive action, for lack of unanimity.
21. On the domestic level properly speaking, the integration of the various forces into a unified national army, and the reunification of the administration, could not be accomplished according to plan. In practice, the country is still divided into occupation zones which overlap with one another, rendering impartial and honest verification of complaints and charges difficult and freedom of movement impossible.
22. Even within the Government over which I have the honour to preside, the reluctance of its members to collaborate with each other is jeopardizing the coalition. The spirit of co-operation is often submerged by bitter criticism. An attitude of suspicion is all too tempting. It is sought to make negotiation impossible by amassing prior conditions and false pretexts.
23. Attempts to divide and undermine the purely symbolic forces placed under my authority have been organized and carried out by persons hostile to Laotian neutrality, the internal consolidation of which might run counter to their political ambitions. They would like the kind of neutrality aimed at by us to be organized in their fashion, in keeping with their own ideas and interests.
24. On the external level, Laos, which since its birth has been the victim of foreign rivalry, greed and interference, can as a neutral nation no longer tolerate any infringement of its unity and sovereignty. We insist that an end be put to all interference, from whatever quarter, in our domestic affairs. We wish to live in friendship and peace so that the Laotian people, torn and weakened by over twenty years of war, may devote itself to specifically national tasks. We want to make a fresh start towards national reconciliation, in concord and unity. Lastly —and this is our dearest wish— we are anxious to preserve the Geneva agreements, so that through coexistence we may achieve our uncompromising neutrality.
25. To this end I hereby proclaim from this rostrum that, despite the obstacles encountered on the road to reunification, I am ready —as I always have been— to continue the dialogue, to break down the wall of suspicion and doubt, and to overcome the deliberate deafness of certain nations by speaking the language of frankness and sincerity.
26. In the interests of peace, I appeal to the great Powers, and especially the signatories of the Geneva Agreements, to respect both the letter and the spirit of the undertakings into which they have entered. If they agreed to follow such a course and to use their influence for the purpose of advocating moderation and concord, their efforts would be greeted with immense relief.
27. This is the way in which we wish to settle our difficulties. If our appeal is heard, if the nations which participated in the Geneva Conference heed the voice of Laos and their own consciences, then we shall gain the only victory that can do credit to the victors —the victory of peace.