Albania

I wish to take this opportunity, Mr. President, to extend to you the congratulations of the delegation of the People's Republic of Albania on your election to the presidency of this session of the General Assembly. 2. On behalf of the Government of the People's Republic of Albania, I salute the eighteenth session of the United Nations General Assembly, and wish it every success in its work. The people and Government of Albania are steadfastly devoting their efforts and energy to the peaceful development of the country and to safeguarding international peace and co-operation, which is also in conformity with the high purposes and principles of the United Nations Charter. To a country like Albania, which has suffered so much from wars and which is now engaged in building socialism, peace is very precious indeed. The Albanians are known as a freedom-loving people that is also devoted to peace and the maintenance of friendly relations with other peoples. It has never attacked the territory or the rights of other nations, nor has it permitted nor will it ever permit anyone to jeopardize its homeland, liberty or rights. It has always fought for freedom and progress. During the Second World War, the Albanian people, as a resolute member of the anti-fascist coalition, made extremely heavy sacrifices in the struggle against the Italian fascist and German nazi invaders, until total victory was won. 3. When liberation came, Albania was a backward agricultural country, ravaged by war and the depredations of the imperialists and constantly threatened by the latter. Everything had to be started afresh. That is what was done. The Albanian people, under the leadership of the Albanian Labour Party and its democratic Government, overcame all obstacles through unselfish determination. It resisted pressure and acts of aggression by the imperialists and their lackeys as well as economic and political blockade. 4. The Albanian people has thus far achieved considerable success in the socialist construction of the country. It has consolidated its national independence and revolutionary victories. It has won the friendship and support of all peace-loving and freedom-loving countries and peoples. It is advancing confidently towards a bright future. The great peaceful work of the Albanian people and its achievements in the nineteen years that have passed since the liberation are the most eloquent proof of the consistent policy in favour of peace and welfare that is followed by the People's Republic of Albania. Albania is now an agricultural and industrial country which has reached the stage of building a completely socialist society, and is rapidly developing its productive forces and raising the general standard of welfare of its population. 5. The changes which have taken place and the pace of development are truly extraordinary, seen in relation to the pre-war situation, I need only mention that in Albania the over-all industrial production is now some thirty times higher than it was in 1938. New branches of industry that were quite unknown before the war have been established. The foundations are being laid for a chemical and metallurgical industry. The mining industry has expanded considerably, particularly as regards the exploitation of deposits of petroleum, ferro-nickel, chromium and copper. 6. Before the liberation, the most beautiful plains of Albania were marshes or wasteland. They have since become veritable market-gardens, producing substantial quantities of wheat, cotton, sugar-beet, tobacco and other crops. Whereas in 1938 Albania had a total of thirty tractors, today it has more than 6,800 fifteen horse-power tractors. Albania has become a construction site. The dwellings built during the last ten years alone would suffice to house the pre-war population of the five principal towns of Albania. My country's foreign trade was formerly an instrument of exploitation and domination in the hands of the imperialist Powers. Albania now has trade relations with many countries, on a basis of equality and mutual advantage. In 1962 its imports were three times larger than in 1938, and its exports were six times larger. Unemployment has disappeared. The number of workers is twelve times higher than in 1938. Interesting developments in this connexion are the training of higher cadres and the revolution that has been accomplished in the realm of education and culture. In 1938 we had a total of about 380 persons who had completed their higher education. Today the figure is 8,300. There are twenty-five times as many engineers as there were in 1938, seven times as many doctors, twenty-two times as many agronomists, and so on. Illiteracy has been eradicated, whereas in 1944 almost 85 per cent of the population was illiterate. At the beginning of the new school year, over 400,000 pupils and students were enrolled, which means that today in Albania almost one person in every four is attending school. Before the liberation, Albania had not a single institute of higher education. Now, in addition to the State University of Tirana, there are higher institutes of agriculture, dramatic art, fine arts, a conservatory of music, etc. More than three quarters of the students have State scholarships. In the month of June this year, 1,130 students had completed their higher education. 7. Albania is one of the first countries in southern Europe to have completely eliminated malaria, that scourge from which almost 60 per cent of the population suffered before the liberation. Throughout the country there now exists a network of medical institutions of all categories, beyond all comparison with the pre-war facilities in both quantity and quality, and in all these institutions treatment is entirely free of charge to all citizens. 8. Particularly notable success has been obtained in economic and cultural development during the first years of our third five-year plan covering the period 1961-1965, which certain ill-disposed prophets had predicted would fail. In fact, it is they who have failed. As for the Albanian people, thanks to its exemplary hard work and to the internationalist assistance given by its friends, it is constantly winning fresh successes. 9. The Government of the People's Republic of Albania pursues a peaceful foreign policy which flows from the very nature of our socialist system, is in perfect harmony with the aspirations and true interests of the Albanian people, and guarantees the conditions suitable for the great work of peaceful construction that is going forward in our country. 10. In its relations with other countries, the Albanian Government always follows a policy of internationalist solidarity with the socialist countries, and a policy of peace and friendship with all other countries —first of all with the neighbouring countries— a policy which is based on the principles of equality, non-interference, mutual respect for national sovereignty and territorial integrity, reciprocal benefits and peaceful coexistence between countries with different social systems. These are the bases on which the People's Republic of Albania has established diplomatic relations with more than thirty countries and is developing commercial and cultural relations with other countries. 11. As it has always done, the Albanian Government continues to pay particular attention to its relations with neighbouring countries. With some of them we are developing normal trade relations and engaging in cultural exchanges. We wish also to maintain normal relations with the other neighbouring countries, according to the principles of peaceful coexistence, which would correspond to the reciprocal interests of our peoples and consolidate the cause of international peace and cooperation in the Balkan and Adriatic regions, where the People's Republic of Albania has become an element of peace and stability. We believe there is no real obstacle to the development of normal relations between ourselves and all the neighbouring countries. For our part, we shall always be ready for this. 12. The People's Republic of Albania is constantly widening its relations with the other countries of Europe and other continents. In the last few years, our relations with several recently liberated countries of Africa and Asia have made great strides. The traditional friendship of the Albanian people with its Arab brother nations has become even warmer. Our relations of friendship and co-operation with the Arab countries as well as with the free and independent countries of Africa and Asia are steadily developing. The Government of the People's Republic of Albania hopes eventually to extend its relations with those countries, especially in the area of commercial and cultural exchanges. 13. The People's Republic of Albania numbers many friends, not only its brother nations in the socialist camp but all peaceful and honest people throughout the world who have at heart the cause of liberty, national independence and progress. Albania is a small socialist country which desires peace and amity with other countries, but which naturally remains on guard —and not without reason— against the intrigues and hostile plans of the imperialists and their tools. 14. In the future also, the Government of the People's Republic of Albania, flinching before no difficulty and yielding to no pressure, will remain true to the same global policy of peace and friendship with other countries, support for the national liberation movement of oppressed peoples, and action against colonialism and the imperialist policy of aggression. It will always favour the peaceful settlement of disputes, the establishment of nuclear-free zones in the Balkans and the Adriatic, in Central Europe and in the Mediterranean, in Asia and in the Pacific, in Africa and in Latin America, and it will always favour general and complete disarmament. It will always make its modest contribution to efforts to avoid another world war and to safeguard international peace and security. 15. The people and Government of the People's Republic of Albania attach the greatest importance to an effective easing of tension and a lasting peace in the world. This is in keeping with our basic policy and the needs of the peaceful construction of our country. Unfortunately, the situation remains tense. None of the major international problems has been solved. Threats to the peace remain serious and are increasing. 16. In the first place, American imperialism is making every effort to turn back the vast revolution which is taking place in the world, before our eyes, in social relations and in the balance of forces; that movement has manifested itself by the triumph of the socialist revolution in a number of countries in Europe and Asia, as well as in Cuba, by the definitive collapse of the colonial system, by the triumphant advance of the peoples fighting for freedom, national independence, peace, democracy and social progress, and by the reversal of the balance of forces in the world in favour of those of peace and socialism. 17. History and current events show that the statements in favour of peace made by prominent figures in the United States of America are not confirmed by that country's actions or policy. The so-called "strategy of peace" and "global strategy" of the United States of America are two aspects of the same policy, the instruments of which are deceit, subversion and war and the purpose of which is the elimination of the socialist system and the restoration of the capitalist system in the world, together with the enslavement of all peoples that have been liberated from the colonial yoke, or, as Mr. McNamara, Secretary of Defense, has put it: the defeat of communism. This is what underlies the incessant hostile activities directed against the socialist countries, from the "captive nations week" declared annually by the President of the United States to the aggression against Cuba. It is also what underlies the events of the Congo, South Viet-Nam, Laos, Angola and South Africa, where the colonialists and racists are massacring, with American weapons, Negroes who are fighting for their freedom. 18. Today, wherever there are hotbeds of war, wherever subversive activities are being conducted against peaceful States and peoples, wherever colonialism, neo-colonialism and racial discrimination still survive, one finds United States imperialism, which is the source of the tragedy of today's world and mainly responsible for it. 19. That is why peace cannot be defended at this stage by painting an attractive picture of imperialism, by making demagogic statements about peace, or by nuclear blackmail, but rather by the effective, organized and sustained action of all peace-loving countries and peoples, designed to unmask imperialism and its aggressive policies, to give active support to all the countries threatened by it, and to compel it to accept a peaceful settlement of international problems, disarmament and peace. 20. The Albanian people, who have suffered so much from aggression by Hitler's Germany, note with concern —like all the other peace-loving peoples— that not only is the German problem far from solved but Western Germany has been turned by the NATO Powers, and particularly by the United States of America, into their main instrument of aggression in Europe, and that peace and the security of peoples are thereby threatened. Western Germany, equipped with nuclear weapons and urged on by its transatlantic patrons, pursues its revanchist and aggressive policies with increasing arrogance. It is openly threatening neighbouring socialist countries, and advancing impudent and dangerous claims to annex the German Democratic Republic, the first German socialist State to constitute an important factor of peace and security in Europe. 21. The Government of the People's Republic of Albania is of the opinion that this dangerous situation can be resolved by the conclusion of a German peace treaty. On this basis West Berlin, that focus of provocation and subversion, would also become a free and demilitarized city. We have always maintained that the peace treaty must be concluded as soon as possible with the two existing German States or, if the Western Powers stubbornly refuse to do so, then with the German Democratic Republic, which has expressed readiness to accede to it. The longer the conclusion of this treaty is delayed, the longer is the solution of the German problem postponed and the graver the situation becomes. It should be noted that at this stage, and particularly after the signing of the Moscow Treaty partially banning nuclear tests, a tendency has emerged in the United States of America to find a modus vivendi and to "freeze "the German problem for the time being, in order to gain freedom of action in some other field of operations. What the West wants most is to postpone still further the solution of the German problem in the hope of reaping large dividends. We think that this dangerous plot against the security of the peace-loving countries of Europe and against peace in general must be laid bare while there is still time. 22. In the Caribbean, United States imperialism has not interrupted its aggressive policies against heroic Cuba for a single day: the economic and political blockade continues, pirate raids are being intensified, and new plans of aggression are being elaborated. But the indomitable Cuban people, led by their Government, are vigilantly defending their fatherland and the revolution while at the same time building socialism. They are the sovereign master of their country and their fate. A people which wrote the glorious saga of the Girón Beach in April 1961, and which in October 1962 did not yield to brutal North American aggression, to blackmail and to various pressures, a people which did not accept that, on the pretext of international inspection of the withdrawal of strategic weapons, Cuba should become a second Congo, a people which have held aloft the banner of revolution, of sovereignty and of national dignity, are invincible and an inspiration to other peoples. 23. The events of recent weeks show that the imperialist threat to Cuba is growing and that no credence should be attached to the "guarantees" of United States imperialism. The delegation of the People's Republic of Albania strongly condemns this dangerous activity and expresses the Albanian people's and Government's whole-hearted solidarity with the people and Government of Cuba. 24. A particularly tense situation prevails in the Far East, where the United States is intensifying its warlike policies. The United States continues to consolidate the aggressive military system it has erected around the People's Republic of China. It is conducting a huge hostile campaign against that great peace-loving country, and is inciting other countries to participate in this dangerous enterprise. United States generals openly threaten China and rattle sabres in the Far East. It is to be hoped that the United States of America will not engage in an adventure which is certain to bring it neither glory nor victory. 25. South Korea and South Viet-Nam are foci of tension and have a part to play in United States aggressive plans in the Far East. Contrary to existing agreements, to international law and to human justice, this Power is perpetuating the division of Korea and of Viet-Nam, Such a situation cannot fail to cause concern to the peoples of these two countries, who rightly yearn for national unity and peace, and to all peace-loving peoples. 26. Korea's northern part, the Democratic People's Republic of Korea, and the northern part of Viet-Nam, the Democratic Republic of Viet-Nam, are independent and sovereign socialist countries which are devoting all their efforts and all their resources to peaceful construction, to economic and cultural development, to raising the people's living standards and to maintaining international peace and co-operation. Not a single foreign soldier is stationed in these countries. Power is in the hands of the people, and the Governments were returned in free and democratic elections. 27. The calm and happy life, the development and progress in these countries are a far cry from the situation prevailing in the southern portions of Korea and of Viet-Nam, where the law is laid down by the United States armed forces. South Korea, under double oppression by the fascist military clique in power and by the occupation forces, is suffering the agonies of poverty, exploitation and degeneration. The United States, shielding behind the name of the United Nations, has turned South Korea into a nuclear arsenal and a centre of provocation and aggression, and is preventing by force the country's democratic development and the unification of Korea. For years the people of South Korea have been obliged to struggle and sacrifice all for their fundamental rights and their national independence. 28. In South Viet-Nam not only is the United States of America trampling on the 1954 Geneva Agreements, bolstering the power of Ngo Dinh Diem's fascist clique, which until recently it used to present as a model of democracy and which is hated by the whole Vietnamese people, but it has also intervened in the country by force of arms, and for years has been waging undeclared war on the heroic Vietnamese people. By what right and for what purpose does it intervene with its troops in South Viet-Nam, where a civil war, a domestic affair of the South Vietnamese people, is in progress? Is this not further evidence that United States imperialism has taken upon itself to defend all corrupt and anti-popular regimes, and that it is the sworn enemy of the freedom of peoples, of peace and of democracy? The recent sad events in Viet-Nam, which have aroused the indignation of all honest and peace-loving people in Asia and throughout the world, create a situation for which these Powers are directly responsible. The heroic struggle of the South Vietnamese people, who have taken up arms in the cause of national liberation, democracy and self-determination, engages the sympathy of every people and will beyond question end with victory over the aggressors and their henchmen. 29. The Government of the People's Republic of Albania fully supports the peace-loving policy of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea and of the Democratic Republic of Viet-Nam, and their tireless efforts for the peaceful unification of their countries and for the withdrawal from South Korea and South Viet-Nam of the United States armed forces, which constitute the main obstacle to unification and a constant threat to peace in the Far East. 30. On disarmament there has been no progress towards agreement. The NATO Powers continue to oppose disarmament and to intensify the arms race. The United States of America continues to strengthen its aggressive blocs and the network of innumerable military bases which it has established all around the socialist countries and equipped with nuclear weapons. At the same time it is increasing military appropriations and conducting one provocative military manoeuvre after another. 31. The Soviet Union's proposal at the fourteenth session of the General Assembly to attain general and complete disarmament within four years encountered favourable response everywhere, it will be recalled that on 20 November 19 59 the General Assembly unanimously adopted a resolution on that subject [1378 (XIV)]. Four years have elapsed since then, yet no concrete progress has been made towards disarmament. On the contrary, armaments have grown in quantity and quality and the danger of war has increased. The Western Powers tend to reduce disarmament to a mere propaganda slogan. Even the discussions within the Eighteen-Nation Committee on Disarmament at Geneva have been fruitless, unless, against all logic, the establishment of a direct communication line between Moscow and Washington, which can be useful for every purpose except disarmament, is to be regarded as a step towards disarmament. 32. Similarly, the Treaty banning nuclear weapons tests in the atmosphere, in outer space and under water, signed at Moscow on 5 August 1963 by the Soviet Union, the United States of America and the United Kingdom, cannot be regarded as a step towards disarmament, despite all the hullaballoo by which it has been surrounded and which is in some respects reminiscent of the morrow of the Munich Agreement twenty-five years ago. 33. Since August 1945, when the United States dropped atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki and senselessly killed hundreds of thousands of innocent victims, all peace-loving peoples and countries, including the People's Republic of Albania, have never ceased to struggle for a ban on these weapons of mass extermination and on all testing, manufacture and use of nuclear weapons, and for the destruction of stockpiles, in the conviction that these steps are both very important as an integral part of general disarmament, and effective in preventing a nuclear war. The imperialists, however, in whose hands nuclear weapons gravely threaten peace and mankind, have obstinately opposed these just popular demands. 34. When the Soviet Union produced the atomic weapon and thereby destroyed the United States monopoly, the United States embarked upon a frantic race to produce and improve nuclear weapons in order to maintain its supremacy in this arm, and used the nuclear weapon as an instrument of its policy of pressure, blackmail, and aggression against the socialist and other peace-loving countries. 35. The Moscow partial test ban treaty does nothing to solve the fundamental problem concerning all peoples: that is to say, the prohibition and destruction of all nuclear weapons. The treaty provides only for the cessation of nuclear tests in the atmosphere, in outer space and under water, whereas it permits underground tests and even makes them legal. It does not reduce the existing stockpiles of nuclear weapons; it does not prohibit the production, improvement or future stockpiling of these weapons, or their import or export, or their use in war. This treaty does not lead towards disarmament, but engenders dangerous illusions which might induce peoples to relax their vigilance towards the aggressive policies of the imperialists and their plots against peace. 36. In its statement on the Moscow Treaty on 15 August 1963, the Government of Albania said: "The Government of the People's Republic of Albania thinks that the partial stoppage of nuclear weapons tests partly meets the wishes of the peoples because it does to some extent reduce the danger to health; but the Moscow Treaty of 5 August 1963 is really a hoax and its consequences for the life of mankind are serious." It is a well-known fact that one of the aims which have been mentioned in order to induce nations to press for the prohibition of nuclear weapons tests has been to stop the contamination of the atmosphere by radioactive fall-out from nuclear tests. But was the Moscow Treaty concluded for this purpose? Did the United States sign it out of concern for the health of the peoples? Not at all. The Moscow Treaty in no way guarantees the prohibition of nuclear tests, even in the atmosphere, in outer space and under water; on the contrary, as has been confirmed by the official representatives of the United States, it leaves the three Powers entirely free to resume testing. Everyone knows that the United States has carried out hundreds of nuclear tests in all media without bothering about their effect on human health. We may rightly ask: if the nuclear Powers are genuinely concerned about human health, why have they only suspended nuclear tests —and only in three media— and why do they not decide to prohibit and liquidate the actual nuclear weapons which threaten human lives? Nuclear bombs are not toys; if they fall, there can be no more question of protecting health, because they sow death, they kill people. That is the real danger, and the danger of nuclear war is just as great after the Moscow Treaty as it was before. That is why it is necessary to show up all this talk about protection of human health in its true light and to reveal the truth: that the Moscow Treaty was concluded for entirely different purposes. 37. Of course everyone knows that the United States had already discontinued nuclear tests in the atmosphere, in outer space and under water because for the time being it no longer needed them. It was, however, interested in preventing others from making such tests in those media and in ensuring for itself full freedom to carry out its own tests underground, which it needed in order to improve and enrich its nuclear arsenal. The Moscow Treaty guaranteed it that advantage. 38. Dr. Seaborg, the Chairman of the United States Atomic Energy Commission, told the Senate on 14 August 1963 that underground tests, which are not prohibited by the Moscow Treaty, would enable the United States to develop a wide spread of nuclear weapons; that it would be technically possible to test nuclear weapons of several thousand kilotons underground, and to gather data which might be even more useful than those gathered from tests in the atmosphere, in outer space and under water. 39. Similarly Mr. McNamara, the United States Secretary of Defense, in a statement to the United States Senate on 13 August 1963, stressed the advantages of the Moscow Treaty for his country. He said: "But, by limiting Soviet testing to the underground environment, where testing is more difficult and more expensive and where the United States has substantially more experience, we can at least retard Soviet progress and prolong duration of our technological superiority." Thus the Moscow Treaty achieves the United States Government's aim of achieving supremacy in nuclear weapons. Moreover, under that Treaty and on the conventional pretext of so-called "extraordinary events" or of the exercise of national sovereignty, the United States may, whenever it wishes and thinks fit, denounce the Treaty and resume testing in all media. The Moscow Treaty guarantees the signatory nuclear Powers a profitable status quo and a monopoly of nuclear weapons; it guarantees them every right and imposes no duties or sanctions if they violate it; whereas it forbids peace-loving countries from increasing their defensive power against the nuclear threat and blackmail of the imperialists. 40. it is perfectly clear from all these facts that there has been no change in United States imperialism and that the Moscow Treaty does not meet the need to strengthen peace but, on the contrary, suits the aims and objectives of the United States, which it allows to implement its war policies under the cloak of respect for the peaceful aspirations of the peoples. 41. In any event, the United States wasted no time in making use of its "freedoms" under the Treaty. It immediately resumed underground tests; it resumed negotiations to supply nuclear weapons to Western Germany under the cover of the so-called "multilateral nuclear force", and its negotiations with Canada to supply nuclear warheads to that country. 42. The delegation of the People's Republic of Albania feels that it must stress another very serious aspect of this problem. The banning of nuclear weapons tests, and the danger they represent, do not concern solely the three nuclear Powers which are signatories of the Moscow Treaty, as representatives of other countries have pointed out very justly from this rostrum. They concern all countries and all peoples, and should therefore be solved through mutual agreement between all the countries of the world. All countries, big and small, nuclear and non-nuclear, have their own rights which must be respected. They have the right to express their views about a question of such importance, on a footing of full equality. In our opinion all the parties concerned, that is to say all the countries of the world, should take part in the negotiations for an agreement to ban nuclear weapons tests. There is no doubt that, if this just course were followed, an agreement would be reached which would really lead to the banning of nuclear weapons and to disarmament. The Moscow Treaty opens the way to negotiations and agreements between only two or three great Powers on problems of concern to all the countries of the world, and to other agreements detrimental to the socialist countries, the non-aligned countries, and the peoples who are struggling to free themselves from the colonial yoke. This dangerous practice cannot fail to arouse anxiety. It is time to point out that we have left behind us the period when a few great Powers could adopt decisions on important world problems without considering the other countries or their sovereignty, interests, rights and opinions. At the present time, only those agreements which have been concluded with the participation and approval of all the parties concerned can be effective and lasting. The Moscow Treaty cannot be considered one of them. 43. By giving the three signatory nuclear Powers a nuclear monopoly and a privileged position, the Moscow Treaty creates a striking inequality among States. It places the peace-loving countries at the mercy of the imperialists; it is a flagrant injustice and an incitement to imperialist policies of nuclear blackmail and aggression. Either nuclear weapons should be prohibited as an instrument of war equally for all countries and be completely and finally eliminated from the scene —which is the only just and radical solution— or else they should not, in which case peace or war cannot be left to the whim of a few Powers, particularly to that of the United States, which officially follows a policy of proceeding from a "position of force" and of preparation for war. 44. The Government of the People's Republic of Albania, guided by the best interests of the Albanian people and of the cause of socialism and peace, has rightly spoken out against the Moscow Treaty, which in the last analysis serves imperialism and does not strengthen peace but imperils it, and must therefore be completely unmasked. In the future also the Government of Albania will continue to make determined efforts, jointly with the other peace-loving countries which form the overwhelming majority in the world, to secure the prohibition of all types of nuclear weapons and their testing, the destruction of their existing stockpiles, and general and complete disarmament. 45. The delegation of the People's Republic of Albania notes with regret that the conclusion of the Moscow Treaty has unleashed a campaign of slander against the People's Republic of China, which once again reveals the aggressive nature of the United States policy and the real aims of the Moscow Treaty. But this malicious campaign can neither cast a slur on the peaceful policy of the People's Republic of China nor obscure the very important proposals made by its Government in the declaration of 31 July 196 3 circulated to Member States by letter of the Secretary-General dated 25 September 1963, advocating the prohibition and destruction of nuclear weapons and proposing that a conference of the Heads of Government of all countries of the world should be convened to those ends. The Albanian delegation hopes that these proposals will be supported by all peace-loving Governments. 46. The Albanian people and its Government, together with the People's Republic of China and several other peaceful countries, continue as always to struggle against the aggressive policies of United States imperialism and its partners, against the policy of nuclear blackmail, in order to remove the danger of war and safeguard peace. 47. The delegation of the People's Republic of Albania hopes that the General Assembly will adopt at the present session decisions which will enable us to pass from sterile discussion and the dangerous illusions deliberately spread about disarmament, to practical and effective measures to achieve general and complete disarmament. 48. The Government of the People's Republic of Albania has placed before the General Assembly a request (A/5498) for the inclusion in the agenda of the eighteenth session of an item entitled "Restoration of the lawful rights of the People's Republic of China in the United Nations". This question, as has been vehemently and rightly stressed by the representatives of Cambodia, Burma and several other countries preceding me at this rostrum, is a fundamental and pressing problem of the United Nations. Any delay in its solution is directly harmful to the United Nations itself and to the cause of international peace and co-operation. It is now clear that the absence of the People's Republic of China bars the United Nations from solving the principal international problems; whereas the presence of China would assuredly consolidate the United Nations and contribute greatly to current efforts to solve these problems. 49. China is a founder country of the United Nations and a permanent member of the Security Council; it accounts for a quarter of the world's population. Without China the United Nations is neither universal nor effective. There is only one China in the world, one and indivisible: the People's Republic of China; and its Government is the only government which represents China and is competent to undertake or carryout commitments on China's behalf. It is neither just nor worthy that the United Nations should refuse the People's Republic of China its lawful place in this Organization because that is the will of the United States of America. We all know that the United States spared neither funds nor weapons to prevent the triumph of the socialist revolution in China. It follows a hostile policy towards the new China; it has occupied Taiwan and other Chinese islands; it is actively preparing aggression against China and spreading the absurd theory of the "two Chinas", which is part of its plot to detach and establish permanent dominion over Taiwan. All attempts to prevent the forward march of the People's Republic of China have failed and will always fail. The liberation of Taiwan and the other Chinese islands occupied by the United States is a lawful right of the People's Republic of China. 50. It is a fact that, every year, the United States Government's opposition to restoration of the lawful rights of the People's Republic of China in the United Nations finds less and less support. But it is in the interest of the Organization and of international cooperation to put an end as early as possible to this abnormal and intolerable situation, to restore China to its rightful place in the Organization, and immediately to expel the elements of the Chiang Kai-shek clique from all the organs of the United Nations. 51. The People's Republic of China is a peace-loving socialist country which has scored enormous successes in peaceful construction and plays a positive international role in promoting peace, the freedom of peoples, and the peaceful solution of international disputes and problems, as was demonstrated by the conferences on Korea, Indo-China and Laos. The People's Republic of China is one of the initiators of the five principles of peaceful coexistence; and that is the basis on which it maintains and develops multiple friendly relations with a great many countries, the majority of which are Members of the United Nations. Faithful to its policy of peace and friendship, it has achieved a negotiated settlement of the frontier questions with Burma, Nepal, Mongolia, Pakistan and Afghanistan. We fully support the just attitude of the Chinese Government in favour of a peaceful, negotiated settlement of the Sino-Indian frontier question; and we hope that the Indian Government will respond positively to the Chinese Government's efforts to bring about a peaceful solution of this problem. 52. The delegation of the People's Republic of Albania hopes that the General Assembly will at last at its present session solve justly the problem of China's representation in the United Nations, by expelling the Chiang Kai-shek puppet and inviting the real representatives of the great Chinese people, the representatives of the People's Republic of China, to come and take their rightful place. 53. For centuries colonialism held sway in the continents of Africa, Asia and America. The colonialists always claimed that they had brought civilization to the occupied countries. That is absolutely false. The cultural monuments of China, Egypt, India and Latin America, to mention only a few, bear witness to the high civilization of these countries and are a pride to the human race. To the countries which the colonialists occupied they brought not civilization but barbarism; they brought slavery instead of freedom, ignorance instead of culture, exploitation and savage plunder instead of development of productive forces, and the mass extermination of local populations. 54. The Albanian people are well acquainted with colonialism, for they have themselves suffered from foreign domination and exploitation, under the former regime of the satrap Zog, who was brought to the throne by certain foreign Powers, Albania was a semi-colony in the midst of Europe, a victim of exploitation and a pawn in the hands of the imperialist Powers. Those Powers, by means of rapacious treaties, imposed on my country the "open door" system; they divided up its territory among their monopolies, the Anglo-Persian Oil Company, the Standard Oil Company of New Jersey, AIPA, and so on. They had plunged the Albanian people in the deepest poverty when finally, on 7 April 1939, fascist Italy unleashed its brutal aggression and occupied the country by force of arms to colonize it completely. But this state of affairs was overthrown for ever with the triumph of the national liberation struggle and the popular revolution in November 1944. 55. The Albanian people, having itself passed through a similar ordeal of suffering and struggle for liberation, understands perfectly the legitimate aspirations of oppressed and dependent peoples and will back them to the hilt in their struggle for national liberation. 56. In the last few years dozens of African and Asian peoples have thrown off by their heroic struggle the centuries-old colonial yoke and founded national States which are now Members of the United Nations and make a very important contribution to the struggle for the total liquidation of colonialism and the preservation of peace. 57. The Albanian people and its Government firmly defend the fundamental right of peoples to self-determination, and their right to freedom and sovereignty. There can be neither lasting peace nor solid international co-operation so long as peoples still suffer under foreign domination. That is why we consider that the total and final elimination of colonialism is the main task of our age. That is why we salute and shall wholeheartedly support until victory the heroic and sacrificial struggle of the peoples of Oman and Zanzibar, Angola and Mozambique, Portuguese Guinea, Southern Rhodesia, North Kalimantan, and others. We support the incontestable right of British Guiana to full and immediate national independence. We condemn the savage oppression and the war of extermination waged against the people subjugated by colonial Powers like Portugal, the United Kingdom and South Africa, and also by the United States of America, which is doing everything possible to support the colonial Powers in this criminal undertaking and striving to substitute its own colonial and neo-colonial rule for the former colonial system. 58. We hail the Addis Ababa Conference of African Heads of State for its important contribution to the liberation of all the peoples of Africa, to the solidarity of all the African countries, and to the struggle against imperialism and against colonialism old and new. 59. The tragic events in the Congo reveal how the colonial Powers use the name of the United Nations to keep in slavery peoples who have risen up in the sacred struggle for freedom. The Government of the People's Republic of Albania will never agree to support, even indirectly, a policy directed to such ends. It therefore states, as it has already stated at previous sessions, that it will not participate in expenditure on the United Nations forces in the Congo and in the Middle East, or on purposes contrary to the principles and provisions of the United Nations Charter. 60. The delegation of the People's Republic of Albania considers that one of the fundamental tasks of the United Nations is to support the just struggle of the oppressed peoples for freedom, and thinks that it is high time effective steps were taken to eliminate the entire colonial system as rapidly as possible and for good, and to bar the road to neo-colonialism in all its forms. The Albanian delegation will support all efforts towards that end. 61. In the very first lines of its Charter, the United Nations sets itself the preservation of peace as a fundamental task. The cause of peace is the cause of all the peoples. It is the profound conviction of the people and Government of the People's Republic of Albania that war can be avoided and that peace and disarmament can be imposed on imperialism if all peaceful countries and all peoples of the world fight together for these noble purposes. We look to the future with optimism. 62. The delegation of the People's Republic of Albania expresses the hope that the United Nations, whose principal purpose is to save the peoples from the scourge of another world war, will spare no effort to that end, and that the work of the General Assembly at its present session will contribute effectively to freedom, peace and international co-operation.