32. For several sessions now, the United Nations General Assembly has met during a particularly difficult and disturbing international situation. The twenty-third session is no exception to that custom; it too opened in the midst of all sorts of crises, some old, the others more recent.
33. Before entering into a consideration of the international situation that is overshadowed by these crises, I should like to associate the delegation of the Federal Republic of the Cameroon with all those who have from this platform duly congratulated Mr. Arenales on his election to the Presidency of the present session of the General Assembly. My delegation’s congratulations are directed first to him, in his capacity as an outstanding diplomatist, and next to his country, Guatemala, a part of that Latin America that is geographically so remote from Africa, but in other respects so close to it. Under our President’s wise leadership, I am convinced that our work will proceed with an efficiency appropriate to his skill and to the trust that has been placed in him.
34. I should also like to take this opportunity to extend to the Romanian Minister for Foreign Affairs, Mr. Manescu, the congratulations of the Cameroon delegation, which highly appreciated the manner in which he guided the work of the twenty-second session.
35. Finally, I should like to congratulate Swaziland on its admission to the United Nations. I am especially pleased that Africa, through its increased participation in international affairs, is bringing new life to our Organization, and making an original and positive contribution compounded of that tolerance, respect for others and sense of human solidarity that are typical of its particular genius.
36. I have said that the international situation is difficult and disturbing. Whether we consider the search for peace in Viet-Nam and the Middle East, the pursuit of the objectives of the Charter concerning human rights, the rights of peoples and the rights of States, or the general move of mankind towards the creation of a favourable atmosphere for its full development, we are bound to admit that a sober examination of the international situation offers no ground for great optimism.
37. In Viet-Nam, a deadly war that has swallowed up an incalculable amount of resources and efforts has already been raging for far too long. Yet the 1954 Geneva Agreements had provided machinery and a procedure for Viet-Nam which it was hoped would finally bring to that country the peace for which its people yearn. Unfortunately, little more importance is now attached to those agreements than to an instrument of propaganda. My Government deplores this state of affairs and is sincerely anxious to see the Paris talks, that opened some time ago at the unanimous wish of all mankind, culminate in a lasting settlement of the over-all situation in Viet-Nam, and more generally in South-East Asia.
38. An equally distressing war goes on for ever in the Middle East. My Government is of the opinion that the return to peace in the Middle East must be sought on the basis of Security Council resolution [242 (1967)] of 22 November last. That resolution constitutes a sound basis for action for the establishment of a lasting peace in that area of the world. The United Nations, particularly the great Powers that are members of the Security Council, have a special responsibility in the search for that peace.
39. One of the sources of international tension is undoubtedly the continuance of the scourge of colonialism in Africa, with its despicable by-product of apartheid, racism and oppression in the southern part of the continent. Whereas the greater part of the African continent has already been freed, southern Africa continues to be the stronghold of colonialism and slavery, where the usurping and minority Governments of South Africa and Southern Rhodesia, joined in unholy alliance with Portugal, are like that country insatiably making inhuman and immoral exactions that the United Nations has condemned on so many occasions.
40. Of course, it is not always easy for someone who is temporarily deranged, even less so for a madman, to return to reason and wisdom. But the international community must not shirk the responsibilities that ensue from commitments freely entered into under the Charter. It must act to put an end to the obduracy of South Africa which, thanks to the support which we are continually denouncing here, is establishing apartheid, that crime against humanity, as State policy. It must also act so as to make the virtues of decolonization evident to Portugal, that small, underdeveloped European State which has every interest to economize, for development purposes, the resources that have been granted to it and the energies it persists in devoting to the maintenance of an army for fruitless colonial conquest.
41. As for the situation in Southern Rhodesia, the responsibility of the United Kingdom remains entire, The international community is in duty bound to see to it that the equivocations of the British Government are not allowed to impair the inalienable rights of the Zimbabwe people. It must remind that Government that the world conscience will not falter in the slightest before the fait accompli that it seems willing to countenance and that consequently it must take the effective measures of coercion that it alleges it rejects on practical grounds.
42. Nevertheless, in various parts of Africa the decolonization process has had a successful outcome, followed by relations of lasting friendship and fruitful co-operation.
43. Near my country, the Republic of Equatorial Guinea has just acceded to national sovereignty. That gives me the opportunity to congratulate the leaders of that young brother State and to express once again the Cameroon Government’s heartfelt wishes for their prosperity and happiness and that of the entire Guinean nation. I should also like to pay a tribute to Spain for its successful accomplishment of the task of decolonization in that part of Africa in an atmosphere of harmony and friendship. All who contributed to the success of that task deserve our thanks, with a special mention for the Organization of African Unity and the United Nations. Such examples of decolonization augur well for future sound and fruitful co-operation.
44. Colonization is doomed to extinction, condemned as it is by the universal conscience and by all mankind. The wheel of history will continue to turn in the direction of the progress of peoples and self-determination. The Organization of African Unity will naturally see to that in Africa.
45. All peoples have the right to develop. Therefore I should be loth to leave this platform without laying particular stress on the arduous nature of the struggle of the developing countries against poverty in all its forms and for a greater share in the fruits of modern scientific and technological advances. In the present international economic situation, which inflicts so much harm on the poor countries, the outcome of that struggle appears somewhat uncertain.
46. In that connexion, I should like to recall that a year ago the entire world was looking to New Delhi, where the second session of the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) was being held. Everyone expected that it would be possible to open negotiations there for building fresh structures for international finance and economy in the new world, in which the needs of the third world, as set forth in the Charter of Algiers, would henceforth constitute an essential element in the thoughts and lives of all mankind.
47. Alas, as we all know, the New Delhi conference yielded such meagre results that not without reason have some described it as a failure. Indeed, those results are a long way short of answering the hopes of the developing countries, for even if it can be said that the second session of UNCTAD resulted in some agreements, it must also be recognized that they were vague agreements on principle which in fact conceal serious disagreements both on substance and on practical methods of implementation.
48. As proof of that I need mention only the failure of the recent negotiations for the conclusion of agreements on cocoa and sugar, notwithstanding the hopes that .were raised by the UNCTAD recommendation on that subject. In other words,. we are back at the starting point, or, at any rate, we are far from having achieved the results expected by the third world. In other words also, the second session of UNCTAD, the adjournment of which had been requested several times even during the course of its work, is not really over, and most of its conclusions are nothing but a preface.
49. Under-development remains a serious obstacle in the path the poor countries must follow to achieve complete emancipation. Each of those countries has to devote enormous sustained efforts to the struggle against under-development, pending the receipt of foreign assistance which is, unfortunately, dependent upon the hazards of the international situation.
50. And yet today, the rich countries are bursting with far greater wealth than they have had in the past, and have reached an unprecedented level of development. At the same time, unfortunately, the gap that divides them from the poor countries grows wider and wider. Now that the international community has suddenly become aware of the development problem, those States which possess the necessary resources and income must demonstrate the requisite political will and determination to solve this problem in the clear interests of all.
51. For my country, at any rate, the struggle against poverty — in other words, the race towards progress and development — takes priority. Since our independence, we have launched a bold development plan which is being carried out continually. The first fruits of that plan are already appearing and the foreign observer travelling through my country now can see for himself the efforts my Government is making to secure a general improvement in the condition of the Cameroon people. From this platform I would like to thank very sincerely all those who, in co-operation with my country, have given proof of their friendship and solidarity in this priority task of our emancipation.
52. The majority of the crises I have just mentioned are due to an evil that has deeply undermined international society, namely, the use of force as an instrument of policy. And it is here that the need for disarmament appears, not only to free substantial resources for development, but especially to create a climate of real mutual trust, understanding, co-operation and peaceful co-existence.
53. That is why my Government welcomes our Assembly’s approval of the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons [resolution 2373 (XXII)]. Of course, it has been said, sometimes rightly, that it contains serious omissions and imperfections; but it is none the less true that that first achievement of the Eighteen Nation Committee on Disarmament represents an agreement of wills and a body of effort whose continuation must be encouraged. In itself, the Treaty cannot be considered as a pledge for the achievement of general and complete disarmament, which remains one of our essential aims. None the less, since it constitutes a further step on the necessarily long and arduous road towards that goal, after the Moscow Treaty of 1963 and the denuclearization of the African continent [see resolution 2033 (XXI)] and other areas of the world, it deserves our unanimous support. What will give it its true meaning for peace, however, is not just the massive accession of States; that is a mere preliminary. Non-nuclear States might see their legitimate anxieties justified and come to the conclusion that the nuclear Powers have induced them to forgo the supreme weapon so that they themselves, having disarmed the practically unarmed, can set up a sort of nuclear club. If that happened our goal would be a long way from being attained. On the contrary, the Treaty will achieve its full purpose when the great Powers too give concrete proof of their will to disarm themselves. Such proof must necessarily come through an extension of the Moscow Treaty to all nuclear tests, through the cessation of all manufacture of nuclear weapons, through the destruction of existing stocks and through the renunciation of the use and possession of such weapons. Furthermore, what will give real content and lasting scope to this treaty and any other disarmament measure depends essentially on the political will of States; for in an international order in which we wish to establish respect for human rights and to promote the integral development of all, it is absolutely essential to create and maintain the best possible conditions of mutual trust and co-operation.
54. Consequently, our Governments must follow an international line of conduct that strictly respects the principles of the Charter, whether the principle of the sovereignty of States or the principle of their right to political and economic independence.
55. I have spoken of force as the evil that has undermined international society. Obviously then, countries that possess more force than other countries, that is to say the great Powers, bear a special responsibility for the survival of that evil. Indeed, they still employ the argument based on force as an instrument of national policy in inter-State relations. It is not surprising, therefore, that they decline to act in conformity with the principles of our Organization, whose very existence represents the international community’s condemnation of such an attitude. In short, international society is being threatened with the prospect of the perpetuation of the rule of force, in other words, the law of the jungle, that force comes first and might is right. Is that not the utter negation of the aims our Organization has set for itself in its endeavours to promote better living conditions for mankind?
56. We therefore feel obliged to launch an appeal to everyone, and especially to the great Powers, that all their acts should be brought within the framework of the United Nations, which remains the best and the only instrument we possess for achieving the goals of mankind and to which I must reaffirm Cameroon’s steadfast and total devotion, and that the United Nations principles we have freely accepted should provide the basis for our conduct in our relations between States.
57. In this way we shall be able to live in a better world, especially if, in the words of my Chief of State, President El Hadj Ahmadou Ahidjo at the Organization of African Unity meetings at Algiers, we set ourselves the goal of “providing international society with a humane and peaceful foundation and of transforming relations among men by replacing the law of force by the force of law.”