This session is meeting at a time when there are real prospects for a further relaxation of international tension. The whole world breathed a sigh of relief when the Treaty banning nuclear weapon tests in the atmosphere, in outer space and under water was signed on 5 August 1963 in Moscow. This news was greeted with joy by the people of all nations. The Moscow Treaty is not only an expression of concern for the health of all mankind. It is concrete proof that co-ordinated decisions can be reached among States in the interests of universal peace; it is a victory for the policy of peaceful coexistence.
2. The alternative —war or peaceful coexistence— has become the basic problem of world politics. The choice now is either a continuance of the "cold war" and the arms race, leading ultimately to the outbreak of thermo-nuclear war, or universal recognition of the principles of peaceful coexistence and the building of an enduring peace on this basis. There is no doubt that, in this crucial period in which we are living, the desire of all peoples is for peace, not war. This being so, the United Nations must do everything possible to satisfy or, at least, to help satisfy this desire for peace. The Moscow Treaty, which has already been ratified by over 100 States, is the first step in this direction. It is gratifying to note that a direct interest in this historic event was shown by the Secretary-General of our Organization, U Thant, who was present at the signing of the Treaty in Moscow.
3. It is the urgent task of this session of the General Assembly to continue resolutely along the way shown by the Moscow Treaty. The delegation of the Byelorussian SSR is glad to note that the majority of States have embarked or are embarking upon a course of peaceful coexistence and co-operation. We are proud that the convoy of peace moving through the melting ice of the "cold war" is headed by the powerful ice-breaker of the Soviet Union.
4. The peaceful foreign policy of the Soviet Union, which is aimed at ensuring peaceful coexistence among States, accurately reflects the aspirations and hopes of the people. The Soviet Union, advancing the only reasonable programme for peaceful coexistence, proposes that all States should compete not in an arms race but in raising the levels of living, in the construction not of military bases and missile launching pads but of houses and schools, in the expansion not of the "cold war" but of mutually profitable trade and cultural exchanges.
5. The main task now facing all peace-loving nations is the prevention of thermo-nuclear war and the strengthening of peaceful coexistence among States with different social systems. The Byelorussian SSR, together with the other socialist countries, is adopting concrete measures for the fulfilment of this noble task.
6. The Government of socialist Byelorussia is faithful to the policy of peaceful coexistence proclaimed by the great Lenin. We realize that the existing contradictions between States cannot disappear in a day because these contradictions are not imaginary but real. We shall never repudiate our socialist ideology; we shall continue to fight for the glowing ideals of mankind —a truly free life with an abundance of material and cultural values. However, we would not dream of forcing our beliefs upon our ideological opponents. The free will of the people, and that alone, is the course along which we wish to steer the ship of history towards the shores of peace, labour, freedom, equality, brotherhood and happiness for all.
7. The preservation of universal peace is the first indispensable condition for the progress of mankind. The efforts of the Governments of all States should be directed towards preventing the outbreak of a new war and ensuring that war is forever banished from human society. The only correct and sure way to achieve this is through general and complete disarmament, a programme for which was proposed four years ago from this rostrum by the head of the Soviet Government, Nikita Sergeevich Khrushchev [799th meeting]. The thoughts of hundreds of millions of people are now turned towards the implementation of this programme.
8. The whole world knows that the Soviet Union is sincerely and consistently pressing for general and complete disarmament under strict international control. The corresponding agreement would have been signed long ago had it not been for the stubborn resistance of certain Western countries whose policies are still dominated by reactionary forces with a stake in the maintenance of international tension.
9. Our delegation has carefully studied the report of the Conference of the Eighteen-Nation Committee on Disarmament [A/5488], which met at intervals throughout the year at Geneva. The Committee has already held hundreds of meetings, but there is still no sign of any progress in its work. Discussions are continuing on the very roots of the disarmament problem. It can be seen from the records of the Eighteen-Nation Committee that the Soviet Union, the United States and the United Kingdom differ so widely in their approach to the basic articles of a treaty on general and complete disarmament that they have failed to reach agreement on a single one of the basic issues under discussion despite all the efforts by the socialist and neutral countries to achieve mutually acceptable solutions.
10. Unfortunately, the heaps of lethal weapons continue to grow higher at a dizzying pace. If the United Nations proves unable to halt this process, there may be a catastrophic landslide which will result in the death of hundreds of millions of people and the destruction of vast material and cultural resources. The arms race, in whatever countries and on whatever scale it is conducted, poisons the international atmosphere; introduces discord, suspicion and open hostility in relations among States; and, like a weight around the neck, drags mankind away from peace and concord into the abyss of war.
11. The disarmament problem has, as we all know, been discussed in the United Nations for seventeen years. As a participant in all eighteen sessions of the General Assembly. I must bitterly note that during this time armaments have not been reduced by a single cartridge, and military budgets have not been cut by a single dollar; on the contrary, conventional and nuclear armaments have increased to dangerous proportions, and military budgets have recently risen to unprecedented levels.
12. The representatives of many States who have spoken before me in the general debate, including the representatives of the Soviet Union, Brazil, Yugoslavia, Czechoslovakia, Burma, Romania, Libya, Cambodia and other States, have rightly devoted considerable attention to the problem of disarmament. They noted with concern that the discussion of this important problem has now been going on for many years but that there are still no positive results. They rightly pointed out that disarmament is the only alternative to the lethal warfare with nuclear missiles which is threatening mankind. Hundreds of millions of people are striving to avert war and exercise timely restraint over the rabid forces of aggression. Disarmament is not only a vital necessity but a genuinely feasible task. It has rightly been said that the path to a world without weapons is not strewn with roses and that this task can be fulfilled only by the stubborn efforts of millions of people in all countries.
13. We are glad to note that more Western leaders are speaking in favour of the idea of disarmament. We welcome the statement made here from this rostrum by the President of the United States, Mr. Kennedy, on the possibility of moving "up the steep and difficult path toward comprehensive disarmament" [1209th meeting]. We welcome the statements in favour of the idea of disarmament made by the representatives of other countries, and we feel that now is the time to move on from good words to good deeds.
14. An excellent opportunity for this is provided by the new proposal of the Soviet Union for convening, in the first half of 1964, a conference of heads of Government of the States represented on the Eighteen-Nation Committee on Disarmament [1208th meeting, para. 130].
15. The delegation of the Byelorussian SSR is pleased, on behalf of its Government, to support the other constructive proposals of the Soviet Union made in the General Assembly on 19 September 1963 by the Minister for Foreign Affairs of the Soviet Union, Mr. Andrei Andreevich Gromyko [ibid., para. 137]. First and foremost, the Soviet Government is ready to agree that a limited number of intercontinental anti-missile and anti-aircraft missiles should remain in the hands of the Soviet Union and the United States on their own territories until the end of the third stage — that is, until the completion of the entire disarmament programme. This is a new step to meet the Western Powers and shows the sincere desire of the Soviet Union to banish thermo-nuclear war from human existence. The delegation of the Byelorussian SSR is convinced that it will now be more difficult for the Western opponents of disarmament to obstruct a mutually acceptable settlement of the disarmament problem without unmasking themselves as the enemies of a practical solution to this problem.
16. Wars and the preparation for them absorb incalculable reserves of human energy and channel it, in the ultimate analysis, into death and human suffering and into the destruction of material wealth. The nations want to put an end to the arms race and achieve general and complete disarmament. The formulation of an economic programme for disarmament, which was proposed by the Soviet Union at the last session, therefore still remains a topical question in which all States should be interested. The people must know what benefits will accrue to mankind from disarmament.
17. When, the resources at present devoted to military objectives are converted to peaceful uses, mankind will in a short space of time effect gigantic reforms; it will improve living standards, accelerate economic processes in the under-developed countries, banish hunger and poverty, conquer insidious diseases and open up new prospects for technical and scientific progress.
18. Our delegation acts in the belief that the inevitability of a thermo-nuclear world war is a fiction and that the disarmament problem would be completely solved if all States allowed their conduct to be governed by the higher interests of mankind. We accordingly consider that the United Nations should devote serious attention to the practical formulation of an economic programme for general and complete disarmament. It is quite obvious that it would also be in the interests of peace to implement the Soviet Union proposals on the freezing or, better still, the reduction of military budgets.
19. On behalf of the Government of the Byelorussian SSR, I hereby state that our Republic has been and will continue to be in favour of denuclearized zones in Africa, Asia and Latin America, the Mediterranean, the regions of the Pacific Ocean, Central and Northern Europe, the Baltic and Balkan regions and other areas. Every proposal for denuclearized zones is inspired by the noble desire to help the cause of general and complete disarmament. We believe that denuclearized zones which have been set up in proper legal form should be guaranteed by the nuclear Powers.
20. The Byelorussian people are disturbed that there is as yet no unity in the world on the question of the non-dissemination of nuclear weapons. The United Nations has adopted a number of quite good resolutions on this subject, but events show that little can be done by resolutions alone. There has still been no repudiation of the dangerous plans for the establishment of a so-called NATO multilateral nuclear force. It is well known that these plans can set off a chain reaction. By 1970, many States will have the technical facilities for producing their own nuclear weapons. It is difficult to over-estimate the consequences for the whole world of the spread of nuclear weapons. We should not forget that, with the invention of nuclear weapons, the means of destruction have become tens of thousands of times more powerful.
21. The Byelorussian people well know the sorrow brought by war. In the Second World War, we lost 1.5 million people out of a population of 10 million and more than half of our national wealth; in almost every family there was some one who did not return from the war. This is why the Byelorussian people are firmly opposed to the arms race and to the preparation for a new world war.
22. Peace is a general and indivisible good. There can be no stable peace so long as the hotbeds of aggression, violence and injustice continue to flourish. The Byelorussian people feel mounting anxiety at the continuing militarization of the Federal Republic of Germany, which is creating an unstable situation in Europe. The famous Potsdam Agreement of 2 August 1945, which was signed by representatives of the United Kingdom, the United States and the Soviet Union, is being violated and openly flouted. These decisions were made in order to ensure that Germany would take the road of peace and international friendship. Instead of pursuing a policy of peace and friendship, one of the two German States, the Federal Republic of Germany, is preparing for aggression and openly declares non-recognition of the frontiers established by the peoples in the course of the liberation struggle against Hitlerism. In the attempt to make the dangerous plans for the creation of a NATO multilateral nuclear force a reality, the Federal Republic of Germany is above all concerned to gain possession of atomic weapons and with their aid to redraw the map of Europe. Only those who hide their heads in the sands of anti-communism can fail to see this.
23. However, there are observers in the West whose sobriety cannot be denied. The English conservative newspaper Sunday Express stated on 18 November 1963 that in practice nuclear weapons for NATO would mean nuclear weapons for West Germany and that a great quantity of such weapons would ultimately come under the direct control of the German generals. It added that since the Germans had started wars twice in the present century, it would be insanity to give them such terrible weapons, with whose aid they might press their territorial claims and start yet another war. This, gentlemen, was written by a conservative English newspaper.
24. In their eagerness to acquire nuclear weapons through NATO, the Bonn revenge-seekers are making the maximum use of their military alliance with France. In this connexion the Soviet Government made the following statement on 5 February 1963: "However nuclear weapons were to fall into the hands of the 'Bundeswehr', whether directly or indirectly, the Soviet Union would consider this an immediate threat to its vital national interests and would be obliged to take immediately the necessary steps dictated by such a situation. "
25. The Soviet nation, which together with other peace-loving peoples sacrificed millions of lives to achieve victory over fascism, will take all steps to prevent the "Bundeswehr" from getting atomic weapons.
26. Atomic weapons in the hands of the Federal Republic of Germany would constitute a serious threat to the whole of mankind. The experience of the twentieth century offers convincing testimony of this. That is why all peace-loving peoples must check the West German revenge-seekers before it is too late. The Government of the Federal Republic of Germany does not conceal its aggressive intentions towards the peace-loving German Democratic Republic. It declines all proposals for the conclusion of a German Peace Treaty and rejects the Rapacki Plan for the creation of an atom-free zone in central Europe [697th meeting],the urgency of which was again emphasized here on 23 September by Mr. Václav David, the Minister for Foreign Affairs of the Czechoslovak Socialist Republic [1211th meeting]. The Federal Republic of Germany was and is opposed to any kind of understanding on the most important international questions and to friendly relations between the great Powers.
27. It is now clear as never before that the only way to put an end to the abnormal situation in West Germany and West Berlin is to conclude the peaceful settlement with Germany for which the people have been waiting these past eighteen years. The signing of a peace treaty with the two German States —the Federal Republic of Germany and the German Democratic Republic— and the declaration of West Berlin as a free city would correspond to the basic interests not only of the people of Europe but of the people of the entire world.
28. Impelled by its concern for world peace, the Government of the Byelorussian SSR strongly supports the proposals of the Soviet Union for improving relations between States and building up international trust. The Moscow Treaty on the partial prohibition of nuclear weapons tests is a happy precursor of the great changes in international life which the people demand. The Treaty does not remove the danger of war, does not end the arms race and does not guarantee our security, but it does point to the path we must take in order to protect the basic interests of mankind.
29. To take this path means, first of all, to conclude a non-aggression pact between the parties to the Warsaw Treaty and the parties to the North Atlantic Treaty, and to take drastic measures for preventing surprise attack and reducing the number of foreign troops in the Federal Republic of Germany and the German Democratic Republic. Such steps would be an important prerequisite to agreement on the basic question —general and complete disarmament.
30. In view of the importance of steps to reduce international tension, our delegation supports the proposal of the Romanian People's Republic, put forward here on 25 September by the Minister for Foreign Affairs, Mr. Manescu, for the inclusion in this session's agenda of an item entitled "Action on the regional level with a view to improving good neighbourly relations among European States having different social and political systems" [see A/5557].
31. The Moscow Treaty has created the necessary conditions for preventing an arms race in outer space. If outer space is really to serve the great objectives of progress in the interests of all mankind, new constructive steps are necessary. In the opinion of the Byelorussian delegation, the Soviet Union's recent proposal for an agreement to prohibit the placing in orbit of objects carrying nuclear weapons [1208th meeting, paras. 184 and 185] represents a real step towards malting outer space a sphere of peace and co-operation. We wholeheartedly support this proposal, impelled as it is by concern for the welfare of mankind.
32. The past year has not brought the full implementation of the Declaration on the granting of independence to colonial countries and peoples [resolution 1514 (XV)]. As many as seventy territories, with a population of some 50 million people, are still in a state of colonial slavery. The colonialists are doing everything in their power to retard the inexorable march of the people towards freedom and independence so that they may continue to plunder and exploit the inhabitants of the colonies. In an attempt to adapt themselves to the requirements of the times, the colonialists are making wide use of more refined neo-colonial methods of maintaining their rule. The most diverse techniques and methods may be found in the arsenal of modern neo-colonialism: the policy of "divide and rule" is combined with a policy of "unite and rule"; the will of the colonial peoples is falsified by means of rigged "elections"; puppets are installed; and ethnic and tribal dissensions are stirred up.
33. Terrorization and repression of the indigenous population continues to flourish in the colonies as before. The colonialists of Portugal and the Republic of South Africa have made themselves particularly notorious in this respect. The Portuguese colonies are thirty times the area of the metropolitan country. The Salazar regime is continuing to wage bloody colonial war in Angola, inflicting a genocide and "scorched earth" policy on the indigenous population. The methods of this shameful war are being increasingly applied by that regime in Mozambique, Portuguese Guinea, Cape Verde and other colonies. On 28 March 1963 the Hindustan Times reported that in the past few years over 100,000 Africans have been murdered in the colonies by Portuguese troops. There is thus direct evidence of real genocide.
34. It is clear that without the support of the leading NATO countries, Salazar would not be able to continue the struggle against the Angolan people. In our opinion, the General Assembly should adopt the strongest possible sanctions against the fascist-like Portuguese colonialists.
35. We may observe a similar situation in the Republic of South Africa. The question of the racial conflict in the Republic of South Africa resulting from the policies of apartheid, that is, domination of the white colonialists over the majority of the country's population, has been brought before the United Nations as many as eleven times, and twenty-seven resolutions have been adopted with a view to compelling the Government of the Republic of South Africa to abandon its policy of racial discrimination,
36. But how does the Government of the Republic of South African react to these resolutions? In a new year's address on 31 December 1962, Prime Minister Verwoerd savagely abused the United Nations, saying that the United Nations was overloaded with insignificant little countries which in fact ran things to suit themselves —the reference being to the countries of Asia and Africa. Then he went on to say that the Republic of South Africa, like most countries with a solid reputation, had learned not to take the United Nations seriously.
37. We demand that the United Nations bring this unbridled racialist to his senses. We can no longer tolerate a situation in which 11 million Africans, constituting over three-quarters of the population of the Republic of South Africa, continue to suffer terror and savage repression.
38. The Byelorussian delegation, today as in the past, strongly condemns the racialist policies of the Government of the Republic of South Africa as violating the most elementary principles of humanity and justice, and insists that sanctions be applied against that country, including the breaking off of diplomatic relations and the cessation of trade.
39. The Byelorussian people are convinced that colonialism's final hour has struck. This conviction has been strengthened by the display of unity on the part of the African countries which, with the backing of all anti-colonial forces, are fighting and intend to go on fighting to carry out the decisions taken at the historic Conference of Heads of African States and Governments which was held in May 1963 at Addis Ababa. The Byelorussian delegation takes this opportunity to declare its full solidarity with the national liberation movement.
40. We shall everywhere support any effective measures against the colonialists, any measures to promote the sovereign right of peoples to independent political and economic development. We demand that by 1965 the last vestiges of the shameful colonial system be definitively wiped from the face of the earth. The destruction of colonialism will enable the politically independent peoples to join forces in the struggle for economic development and independence.
41. The events of the past few months in South Viet-Nam have attracted universal attention and aroused the indignation of world public opinion. The whole world knows that the bloody regime of Ngo-dinh-Diem has transformed that country into a vast concentration camp. Grossly violating the norms of international law in its attempt to crush the struggle of the people of South Viet-Nam for national independence .democracy, peace and the unification of the country, the Ngo-dinh-Diem régime is subjecting a peaceful population to bombing, is using poison gas and is destroying the peasants' rice fields. Some 350,000 people are languishing in the prisons of South Viet-Nam, including more than 6,000 children. Tens of thousands of innocent people have been murdered.
42. The roster of crimes of the anti-people's clique of Ngo-dinh-Diem has been lengthened in the past few months by further acts of violence and carnage. This time the Saigon dictator has attacked the Buddhist clergy. This is how the brutal excesses of the army and police against the Buddhists were described in the French bourgeois newspaper Combat on 26 August 1963: "They plundered these holy places in the literal sense of the word; they desecrated the altars; they beat the monks unmercifully and, having bound them, threw them into trucks and transported them to the cemetery more roughly than cattle being led to slaughter. In order to cover up his profanation of Buddhism, a two-thousand-year-old religion which is professed by almost the entire population of Viet-Nam, Ngo-dinh-Diem concocted the charge that the Buddhist clergy are acting in concert with the Communists."
43. The whole world knows why Ngo-dinh-Diem has embarked on the repression of the Buddhists. The ground is slipping away under the feet of this Saigon hangman. The people of Viet-Nam keenly desire to throw off the chains of this evil clique of adventurers. Ngo-dinh-Diem is using terror in order to maintain himself in power and preserve his thoroughly corrupt regime, but terror is powerless against a people who crave freedom and democracy. The Vietnamese people are demanding an end to United States interference in their internal affairs. They demand that the economic and military assistance being given to the Ngo-dinh-Diem clique be ended.
44. The Byelorussian SSR emphatically condemns the oppression of the peaceful population of South Viet-Nam and supports the just demands of the Vietnamese people for the peaceful unification of their country, the immediate withdrawal of United States troops from their territory and the opportunity to determine their own future.
45. The experience of history shows that the successful development of mutually advantageous economic and trade relations is possible only when the international situation is stable and peace has been firmly established. Conversely, active economic and trade relations between States based on the principles of equal rights and mutual benefit create the conditions for a durable peace and for the solution of international disputes by peaceful means. The Head of the Soviet Government, Mr. Nikita Sergeevich Khrushchev, said in March 1958: "Trade has a more than economic significance. Trade is the most normal way of establishing good relations between countries. Trade and economic ties create a good basis for the consolidation of international political relations."
46. There can be no doubt that the expansion of trade, and in particular trade between countries with different social and economic systems and between countries at different levels of economic development, plays an important part in ensuring progress and improving the well-being of all peoples, contributes to the strengthening of peace, and is one of the most effective means of accelerating the economic development of the less developed countries which have only recently freed themselves from the political shackles of colonialism.
47. However, the world situation in so far as economic relations and co-operation are concerned can hardly be considered satisfactory. Exclusive trade and political groupings which discriminate against non-Member States still exist. The dangerous doctrine of anticommunism, which has done great harm to the friendly exchange among nations of the fruits of their labour, hangs like a black cloud over economic co-operation. Is it possible to regard as normal a situation in which trade partners refuse to live up to their obligations and sacrifice to the one-eyed monster of anticommunism the economic interests of their people? Despite the demands of business circles in the Western countries, reactionary forces continue to uphold a policy of trade restrictions in relation to the countries of the socialist camp.
48. What nations need is not trade in general but trade on mutually advantageous terms: trade without discrimination and without artificial political, economic and administrative barriers, trade by which the full sovereignty of both parties is recognized and interference by either in the internal affairs of the other is outlawed. In adopting the resolution on the convening of an international conference on trade and development [resolution 1785 (XVII)], the United Nations gave voice to a universal desire, for the people expect that this conference will mark the first steps towards bringing order into world trade. It is the responsibility of this session to ensure that these steps are really taken in the interests of all mankind.
49. Now that there are good prospects for closer cooperation among all countries, it is essential that the reactionary forces obstructing the peaceful coexistence of peoples should be kept in check. In this regard, an important responsibility falls upon the United Nations, which must work much better and much more effectively and actively than in the past.
50. The United Nations must not be allowed to become either a passive recorder of international events or a tool in the hands of any particular group using it to further its own interests. The United Nations was created for all peoples and should express the hopes of all peoples.
51. An important step towards making the United Nations more effective would be its complete universalization. It is intolerable that the People's Republic of China should still be prevented from taking part in the work of the United Nations. We are strongly in favour of the restoration of the lawful rights of the People's Republic of China in the United Nations. The General Assembly should cast out from its ranks the Chiang Kai-shek representatives who represent no one but themselves.
52. While the great Powers bear a special responsibility to history, peaceful coexistence makes the same demands on all States, both large and small. Among the most important of these demands is respect for the sovereignty of States, for the right of peoples to the free choice of their political and social system.
53. Unfortunately, far too many States are failing to comply with this demand. We are continually reminded of this by the tragic conflicts that have sprung up in the world and that keep alive the hotbeds of tension. Our Organization should draw a lesson from the events of last year when a great Power's disregard of the sovereign rights of a small country brought the world to the brink of catastrophe, of a general thermo-nuclear war.
54. In this connexion, our delegation again wishes to draw the attention of the world community to the dangerous manoeuvres still being perpetrated against the Cuban people. Events have shown that not only have there been provocative statements in regard to Cuba, like the recent statement of the American Legion at Miami, but also that deeds have been committed which violate Cuba's sovereignty and infringe its rights. We are convinced that the facts of life will force Cuba's enemies ultimately to realize that all subversive activities and discrimination are futile against the Cuban revolution which enjoys the support of all peoples.
55. The road to development and social reform chosen by Cuba is a domestic affair of the Cuban people, and no one has any right to interfere in its affairs. The delegation of the Byelorussian SSR demands that the acts of economic and military aggression against Cuba be stopped.
56. The Byelorussian people firmly believe in the great possibilities of the human mind. The constructive changes taking place in the world today have divided the whole of mankind into an overwhelming majority in favour of peace and progress and a puny handful of mad politicians who, like scorpions, are ready to commit murder and suicide.
57. It is the duty of all honest men to check the forces of aggression and war and to strengthen peaceful coexistence among peoples, thus enabling mankind to solve all its problems. Reason demands of us to show more patience, greater self-restraint, a stronger desire for co-operation and greater concern for the fate of the entire world.
58. To prevent a new world war and ensure peaceful coexistence is the duty of the United Nations and of all peoples.