Hungary

In the new and rather favourable climate of this eighteenth session of the General Assembly three questions come to one's mind: 77. First, is this so-called armistice in the cold war just a temporary mood, one which will soon pass, or are there in the background any permanent factors that have prompted a lessening of general tensions? 78. Secondly, what should be done so that this period of "détente" might continue? In all probability, everything depends on what use will be made of the pause in the cold war. 79. Thirdly, then, what step could next be taken to widen the scope of agreements that would not only prolong but even deepen mutual understanding and international co-operation? 80. I will try to find answers to these questions by using as an illustration a rather peculiar recent incident which was the result of a common effort of Moscow and Washington. The emergency communications system established between the two capitals is doubtless unprecedented in history, being commensurate with the thermonuclear age. One would have expected the first message sent through the so-called "hot line" to be a solemn and even dramatic one, worthy of being remembered by generations to come. Instead, it went from Washington to Moscow in the following terms: "The quick brown fox jumped over the lazy dog's back." And from Moscow to Washington just a few letters and some numerals were transmitted. The first message on a communications system unprecedented in all history —and I want to mention, incidentally, that part of the installations were made in the German Democratic Republic— did not serve anything but a technical purpose: to test the accuracy and reliability of the teletype and code systems. 81. This really peculiar example illustrates how the two thermo-nuclear Powers most competent to judge the dangers and consequences of a thermo-nuclear holocaust have made it clear that in this extraordinary situation extraordinary measures are needed, and at the same time that caution and careful circumspection are by no means less necessary at each step taken on the common road opened by common measures. 82. The most direct factor in bringing about the present relaxation in international tension is the common awareness of the two thermo-nuclear Powers that under the shadow of the dangers of thermo-nuclear war their common task is to promote international cooperation against all sorts of war dangers, cold or hot, because any cold-war tension may lead to a hot war, and any hot war, however local in character, may lead to a thermo-nuclear conflagration. 83. Whatever the ideological or political system on the basis of which we participate in international negotiations, we have to recognize that in the age of thermonuclear weapons wars have lost whatever sense they might have had as a means of settling international disputes. Wars, even as ultima ratio, have no sense at all since the arrival of the thermo-nuclear age. 84. The Western Powers representing the capitalist system with its ideas may elaborate —if they wish— the ways and means of reversing the trend of history and restoring capitalism where it has already lost ground or introducing it where it has never existed, but in doing so they have to forego any attempt to resort to war. In the same way, moved by our conviction regarding the world-wide realization of a new society, that of socialism and communism with an amazing development of humanity, we wish to arrive at this new stage in the history of man through peaceful competition. In the present world situation, peoples and governments, for all the differences in their ideologies, have to live with a vision of peaceful development, of a world without wars. The new atmosphere in this Assembly has sprung from this world situation, and it is working for such a vision in our minds. 85. There exist, of course, anachronistic views that are hard to change. There are imperialistic quarters in whose view colonial exploitation may be maintained or world domination restored by force of arms, by a thermo-nuclear armaments race. There are obsolete views on the opposite side as well, to the effect that as long as imperialists exist wars cannot be eliminated from the history of mankind. However active the representatives of such views may be here and there, they cannot gain much support, for they are not able to present any realistic programme for carrying out their aims, except by taking the risk of thermo-nuclear holocaust. They think in reality that there is no alternative, for present and future generations, to a thermonuclear catastrophe on a world-wide scale. 86. To accustom our contemporaries to the conditions of the thermo-nuclear age is not an easy task. It took a long time, and the time of several sessions was wasted on lengthy debates, to arrive at the level of the realistic views prevailing today. A new factor has presented itself in the United Nations —the presence of newly independent nations. And their participation in this Organization has changed the destiny of many agenda items —one would even say, the destiny of this very Organization. 87. The process of decolonization has had a rather specific effect upon the life of this Organization, especially with respect to its approach to the problems of disarmament. What is contained in the partial nuclear test ban treaty, in connexion with the proposal for general and complete disarmament under strict international control, has its own history in the series of sessions of the General Assembly. The road has been long and sometimes rather rough. The records show that there have been meetings during which the representative of an atomic Power even ridiculed any idea of the harmfulness of radio-active fall-out resulting from nuclear experiments. It is also on the record that a host of arguments were brought up against general and complete disarmament of any sort, and some delegates went out of their way to prove that wars were organic parts of human nature. 88. At a rather sudden turning point, the growth in the membership of this Organization, due to the process of decolonization, set a new trend in disarmament proposals. The growth in membership and the breakthrough of those proposals proceeded side by side, almost like a single process. A fresh breeze swept into the deliberations of the United Nations, Old cold war issues faded away. Representatives who had been active in the anti-colonialist struggles detested and opposed the artificiality of the cold war debates and called for a new outlook on the world, firmly intent upon securing a good foundation for the development of the liberated nations. 89. We were told in this hall the other day that two or three years ago the outlook for this Organization was rather bad, but that today its prospects are much better. If it is so —and it surely is— the main explanation of this happy development is to be found in the activities of the new Member States. Their overwhelming proportion in the membership of the United Nations gives them special power and responsibility in determining the agenda of the sessions as well as in helping the Organization to keep to its real task of securing international peace, liquidating colonial rule, and promoting social development all over the world. 90. My Government is conscious of the improvement of the political atmosphere in the United Nations and of the beneficial activity of the new Member States. 91. The effects of the process of decolonization have led to a "détente", but now there is a growing danger that the atmosphere of "détente" may be used against the further progress of decolonization, Voices to this effect have already been heard in this debate. Efforts towards further realistic steps to consolidate peaceful coexistence should not be used as a pretext for opposing anticolonialist movements and prolonging colonial domination. "Détente" and decolonization are not antagonists, in fact they are linked to each other. The implementation of United Nations declarations and resolutions on the liquidation of the colonial system will promote international relaxation; it will eliminate the causes of international tensions. The eighteenth session of the General Assembly, with its unprecedented atmosphere of mutual understanding, will contribute to the perpetuation of this atmosphere if, through careful deliberations, it helps to find new ways and means of completing the process of decolonization before the twentieth anniversary of the United Nations. 92. Anticolonialist forces are strong enough to accomplish their work even without this Organization; but if the United Nations should fail to justify the hopes and expectations of the anticolonialist movements, that would be harmful to the Organization and to international relations in general. 93. My Government has paid great attention to the historic Summit Conference of Independent African States, held at Addis Ababa in May 1963. Regional groupings and organizations are not always only for themselves and they are not always meant only to receive guiding ideas from the United Nations; they may exist for all of us and they may even offer guidance to larger communities. This is exactly the case with the Addis Ababa Conference, When it dealt with remoulding —as a Ghanaian poet put it— "the full figure of Africa's hopes and destiny” after formulating the Charter of the Organization of African Unity, it passed resolutions on concrete steps and measures in the field of disarmament and decolonization. The participants were aware of the fact that the struggle for disarmament would promote decolonization, and that in the same way the struggle for decolonization would encourage actions and negotiation for disarmament. 94. The Conference of Heads of African States and Governments set an example to all international gatherings of how to deal with real issues of the present time. 95. After declaring the imperious and urgent necessity of intensifying their efforts to accelerate the unconditional achievement of national independence for all African territories still under foreign domination, they invited the Powers concerned to take concrete steps for the sake of decolonization. As for themselves, they established a special fund to help liberation movements and a special committee to organize the assistance given by African States to liberation movements. At the same meeting they called upon the great Powers, in particular the Soviet Union and the United States of America, to put forth their best endeavours in the interest of general and complete disarmament and to take preparatory measures to this end. They declared their determination to undertake negotiations aimed at ending military occupation on the African continent, and eliminating military bases and nuclear tests on African territory. 96. My Government gave heed to the appeal of the Addis Ababa Summit Conference regarding South Africa and Angola. The representative of Hungary in the eleven-nation Special Committee on the Policies of apartheid of the Government of the Republic of South Africa acted, in common with other members of the Committee, in the spirit of earlier United Nations resolutions and of the appeal of the Summit Conference of Addis Ababa. And my Government has adopted all the measures called for in the resolutions of the United Nations and the Addis Ababa Conference. 97. The appeal of Addis Ababa, together with those of the United Nations Committees dealing with colonial and apartheid issues, will give this session sufficient guidance for action in a more effective way to help African nations in remoulding the full figure of Africa's hopes and destiny. 98. It will be somewhat more difficult to discern what the United Nations will really be able to do to bring the situation in South Viet-Nam closer to a quick and lasting solution. I submit that Asian countries with a firm determination could be helpful in elaborating a realistic plan of action, just as the summit conference of African States promoted universal understanding for the unsettled issues of African nations. In South Viet-Nam, just as in South Korea and in certain other parts of the Far East, the situation continues to be complicated and even dangerous because some Western quarters are under the illusion that the frontiers of one or another Western State run somewhere between North and South Viet-Nam or between North and South Korea. Those who cherish such illusions are tempted to undertake the defence of their own political ideas in those territories, even by force of arms. 99. Representatives of nations in that region could help to bring things back to the basis of the Geneva agreements and armistice treaties they themselves worked out in concert with the great Powers. If the United Nations, upon the initiative of Asian countries, could expedite the immediate application of earlier realistic agreements, then the peaceful way to the unification of Viet-Nam and Korea would be open. Then the notorious so-called First Lady, Madame Nhu, would stop boasting about her coming here with the intention of lecturing the United States on political morality. 100. Just as the entire process of decolonization has helped to create an atmosphere beneficial to high-level negotiations, so the United Nations by promoting the completion of decolonization will offer new possibilities for approaching the problems of disarmament in an even more effective way. 101. When direct negotiations between the great Powers are going on in search of further possibilities for reaching new agreements, is there any action at all left to the United Nations that could contribute to the success of direct negotiations? A representative of a State member of the Eighteen-nation Committee on Disarmament, speaking in this debate, regretted the fact that the limited test ban treaty had not been drafted and signed at the negotiating table of the Eighteen-nation Committee, In reality, there is another fact to regret: it is that a chair is vacant at that table. The world is anxious to bring the full membership of the Committee to that table. The General Assembly certainly will not give up the hope that the time will come when representatives of all the States members of the Committee will share the responsibility involved in its activity. Delegations to this session of the General Assembly would promote the cause of real international co-operation for peaceful co-existence if they gave expression to their concern in that respect. Even in the present situation the Eighteen-nation Committee could be more helpful and efficient if all its members concentrated upon the proposals put forward with a view to narrowing the gaps between the opposing stands. 102. At a time when, fortunately, enough, direct negotiations of the thermonuclear Powers are in process, the question arises in the minds of many representatives: in what sense could the General Assembly itself and the Eighteen-nation Committee or any other body of this Organization make any useful contribution to the efforts to stop the armament race and promote disarmament negotiations? The discussions in the organs of the United Nations are no less important at a time of direct negotiations than at the time of any sort of stalemate in those negotiations. At a time when the direct negotiations come to a standstill, discussions in United Nations bodies ought to be directed toward getting the negotiations started again. At such a time as the present when direct negotiations are going on, the interdependence between such negotiations and United Nations debates becomes obvious. The very fact that the negotiations continue —not to mention their results— may create an encouraging atmosphere for discussions in the organs of the United Nations, and those discussions, in turn, may stimulate and inspire new proposals and new agreements through direct negotiations. So it may be said that debates in the United Nations are not at all out of place while direct negotiations are being conducted; its tasks are even more important and its work may be even more effective. 103. In the present situation, following the Moscow Treaty, there are two particular issues for which special services may be rendered by this session of the General Assembly. 104. In the course of the general debate the Government of the Soviet Union proposed [1208th meeting] that the Eighteen-nation Committee should be convened at the highest level, with Heads of State or Government participating, in the first quarter or in the first half of next year, for the purpose of taking further steps to work out agreements on disarmament issues on the basis of the results obtained so far through United Nations discussions and direct talks. Several of the States members of the Eighteen-nation Committee on Disarmament have already expressed their readiness to accept the proposal of the Soviet Union. Some have made reservations to the effect that their participation depended on whether the high- level meeting showed promise of results. Delegations favouring a high-level meeting should encourage the States members of that Committee to decide in favour of such a meeting. In the present situation a high-level meeting certainly would be useful, since the negotiations conducted so far have laid the groundwork for agreements that could be reached during high-level deliberations, and the Summit Conference of Independent African States could serve as a new guidance to the Eighteen-nation Committee on Disarmament during its regular deliberations. 105. The overwhelming majority of States Members of the United Nations have already signed the Moscow Treaty. In some countries, however, the official announcements of their accession to the Treaty were, and are still being, accompanied by cold-war propaganda stimulating international distrust. I refer to the case of a non-member State: official government circles of the Federal Republic of Germany exploited their accession to the Treaty for purposes of cold-war and hostile propaganda against the German Democratic Republic. I limit myself to that example. Delegations representing Governments that recognize the real value of the Treaty and have already signed it could contribute to lessening world tensions by calling upon Member States to be parties to the Treaty and by condemning all sorts of cold-war propaganda attached to the presentation of the Treaty and directed against the present trend of a growing international cooperation which tends to lessen the dangers of war and even to put an end to them forever. 106. At this session of the General Assembly we are really surrounded by beneficial effects of the Moscow Treaty. The entire atmosphere, the statements, even the phraseology of the debates, are deeply pervaded by the spirit of an agreement which constitutes an important first step toward the reduction of international tension and the strengthening of peace. We only hope that the Moscow spirit reflected in this treaty will prevail; and if it does that will be a comforting experience in sharp contrast to the experience of the so-called Geneva and Camp David spirits of such duration. 107. Beyond what has already been said regarding the significance of the Treaty for the safeguarding of the atmosphere against further pollution, limiting the nuclear arms race and imposing new common obligations upon the great Powers, I submit a few additional observations. 108. The Treaty, in its present form and in its relation to more general disarmament goals, is a more adequate answer to the expectations of the peoples longing for peace than it was in its earlier form as proposed three or four years ago. In earlier form, as it was then presented, separated from the proposals for general and complete disarmament and from other measures intended to lessen world tensions, it could have been used to create false illusions and betray the great expectations of peace-loving peoples by putting a partial agreement in the way of more comprehensive disarmament negotiations. In the Moscow Treaty, the original Parties —the Governments of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, and the United States of America— proclaim as their principal aim the speediest possible achievement of an agreement on general and complete disarmament under strict international control. By signing the Treaty they pledged themselves to seek the speediest possible way to the achievement of a general and complete disarmament agreement. And so did all the Governments which acceded to the Treaty. 109. In this context the original parties promised to discuss other interim measures to lessen world tensions and to secure peace. Their joint communiqué referred specifically to the Soviet proposal relating to a non-aggress ion pact between the participants in the North Atlantic Treaty Organization and the States Parties to the Warsaw Treaty. The proposal for such a pact is not simply the concern of the European and North American continents. The entire membership of the United Nations should concern itself with this matter of world-wide significance. The dangers inherent in the confrontation of the forces of the two organizations, aiming thermonuclear weapons at each other, are not only overshadowing the European and North American continents with the tragic possibilities of a thermo-nuclear disaster, but they are endangering the present and future generations all over the world. Delegations at this session, irrespective of the continents they represent, would do a service of world-wide importance if they could strengthen and stimulate the will of all concerned to negotiate a nonaggression pact between the two main military organizations. As the representative of a State Party to the Warsaw Treaty, I express the readiness of my Government to take part in such negotiations for the sake of international peace and security. 110. As a result of the enlarged and improved composition of the membership of this Organization, resolutions of United Nations bodies and actions of the Secretariat have improved in many respects; they are more adequate expressions of the principles of the Charter than they were before. I will illustrate this with two samples. 111. First, at the time of the Caribbean crisis of sinister memory the good offices of the Secretary-General were of great value. He was able to perform his action according to his goodwill because he felt he had the support of the overwhelming majority of this Organization. Now the responsibility rests largely with the United Nations to see that promises are kept and that the sovereignty and social order of the Republic of Cuba are not threatened from the American continent. 112. Secondly, we have to commend the efforts of the Secretary-General in handling the West Irian question. After so many years of fruitless debates In the General Assembly, it is due to the good offices of the Secretary-General and to the participation of all concerned that the problem has been settled, and even in an exemplary way —exemplary in regard to the careful preparations for taking over and handing over the administrative powers and to the lawful solution of the financial questions. 113. Unfortunately enough, the question of Sarawak and North Borneo did not in due time get the amount of attention it would have needed. If the Governments of Indonesia and the Philippines express their resentment at not having been sufficiently consulted, we have to give heed to them. If alarming news of neocolonialist efforts are coming from that region at the time of the final process of decolonization, the United Nations should give its sympathy to those who are anxious about colonialist infiltration. I wish to state that I share the anxiety of the Indonesian delegation. I only hope that the proposals of Indonesia and the Philippines will make it possible to find ways and means to protect this region of the world against any sort of neo-colonialist infiltration. 114. As long as the lawful rights of the People's Republic of China in the United Nations are not restored, United Nations actions will be hindered or even paralysed in many respects: in adapting the Charter to the requirements of the present international situation, in dealing with questions of the Far East and with the problems of disarmament. It is impossible to deal with matters of world-wide concern without the participation of the largest State in the world, representing one-quarter of the whole world's population. The sooner the question is solved, the better for this Organization. The later a solution is reached, the more this Organization and the world situation will be harmed. 115. A new activity of great importance is within the reach of this Organization: the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development, to be held before long. It will be to the interest of peace and fruitful cooperation, if, by co-ordinating the existing functions and creating new ones, the Conference creates a permanent body to encourage the free development of trade relations and to foster measures against discriminatory systems. In this new political atmosphere there are increasingly valid reasons to hope that the Conference will, in the spirit of peaceful coexistence, work out solutions for closer economic co-operation between countries having different social and economic systems and structures. 116. In conclusion I venture one more remark. The limited test ban treaty, however limited it is, has a by-product that cannot be overlooked. It virtually turned the entire world into a dramatic world congress for peace. Peoples everywhere, all over the world, had to concern themselves with it. Governments in official meetings, national assemblies, houses of representatives, senates —some of which have never even discussed a real peace programme— were and continue to be confronted with the treaty of the three great Powers, to which more than a hundred States have already put their signatures. And this confrontation is a challenge to them, compelling them to open the way to proposals that are intended to help place the world on a basis of constructive competition without wars. This world-wide plebiscite also offers new possibilities for the United Nations to perform its real task for ' the sake of international peace and security and social development. 117. Mr. President, you have begun your high functions under favourable auspices. Let me express the hope that the favourable indications will not diminish but will grow day by day and step by step as the work of the General Assembly proceeds. In this expectation I extend to you and to the Secretary-General the good wishes of my delegation.