151. Before I begin my speech let me tell you, Mr. President, how happy I am to see you presiding over our proceedings. You have had long and rich experience in international affairs. You have proved your skill as an outstanding negotiator. You possess indeed all the qualities to make your presidency distinguished and successful.
152. It is generally admitted that the principles which are laid down in the Charter of the United Nations serve as standards against which the actions of Governments in the international field are judged and measured. No Government and no statesman in our time can escape such critical scrutiny. It has been hoped that government leaders, when furthering their national interests, will take into practical account the international ideals which are represented by the United Nations and that they will come to realize that national interests also are, in the long run, best served in this way.
153. All too often this hope is frustrated and we have to witness how the principles of the United Nations are violated or ignored. During the course of this year violence, or the threat of violence, has been employed in many parts of the world. We have heard different motivations and excuses offered in defence of what has happened. But we have not become. convinced by these explanations. One of the principal rules enshrined in the Charter, as a result of the collective experience of generations, stipulates that unilateral resort to violence, or the threat to use violence, is never permissible. The sole exception to this rule is defence against an armed attack.
154. When one of the States Members of the United Nations, Czechoslovakia, was occupied by the Soviet Union, Bulgaria, Poland, Hungary and East Germany, this was an act of force in clear contravention of the provisions of the Charter. It is thus a matter of proper concern for our
Organization. The reasons given for the occupation are not valid, whether from a legal, political or moral point of view.
155. The foreign troops entered the country without the knowledge and against the wishes of the legal Government. It was an infringement on the territorial integrity and the political independence of Czechoslovakia and it has led to intervention in the internal affairs of the country. The Charter does not provide for any right to intervene on grounds of allegiance to a common ideology.
156. The Czechoslovak leaders had declared and manifested their determination to continue on the road of socialist development. They had declared their adherence to the military and political arrangements in Eastern Europe. Their efforts to achieve a humane and more democratic form of socialism were followed with interest and sympathy, not least in my own country, Sweden.
157. Under these circumstances we cannot but deplore the action undertaken against Czechoslovakia as a tragic political error as well as a breach of legal and moral principles. The peoples of Czechoslovakia have conducted their struggle for independence and in defence of their form of social
and political life with dignity and courage. Such policies cannot hurt the legitimate interests of any country. On the contrary, they can only improve the prospects for peace in Europe based on good neighbourly relations among all States. The sooner the foreign troops are withdrawn and the peoples of Czechoslovakia are allowed to plan and to decide their own future without external pressure, the
better are the chances of limiting the damage that has been done to the efforts at détente in Europe and in the world. The damage is there and it is severe. It must be repaired so that a renewal of the cold war can be avoided and the efforts resumed to rebuild bridges where they have been destroyed, to eliminate fears where they have led to irrational actions, and to recreate confidence where it has been shaken.
158. The use of force does not achieve any permanent solution of political problems. That is true in the case of Czechoslovakia. It is equally true in the case of Viet-Nam.
159. The war in Viet-Nam causes horrible sufferings to the Viet-Namese people on both sides of the demarcation line and exposes the country to widespread devastation. The talks in Paris have been followed in my country with great attention. While appreciating fully the difficulties of those
talks, I do not wish to conceal our feelings of regret and disappointment that as far as is known they have not led to any real progress. It is clearer than ever that attempts to solve the conflict by means of continued and increased use of violence are doomed to failure. Everything must now be
done to achieve a peaceful solution. There is no doubt that a gradual de-escalation of the hostilities would improve the prospects for such a solution. We have maintained for a long time that it is incumbent upon the militarily strongest party, the United States, to take the first step in that direction and to cease the bombing of the Democratic Republic of Viet-Nam. It is deeply regrettable that the bombing halt which began in April is only partial. According to available information, the total explosive power of the bombs “used over North Viet-Nam has not diminished. In our opinion, the bombing should be halted today. This would mean a great step towards peace in
Viet-Nam.
160. In the modern era, the use and the threat of force cannot ensure durable peace. That assertion is equally true in the Middle East. The cease-fire which was achieved after the war in June last year is precarious and constantly threatened by serious incidents. It must be replaced by a
peaceful solution which respects the principle that military conquest does not establish any right to the territory of another State and which, at the same time, recognizes the right of all States to live in peace and security. It was a remarkable achievement for the Security Council to reach
agreement on the guidelines for such a solution. The whole world now expects the parties to collaborate in good faith with the Special Representative of the Secretary-General in the search for a solution. It is the duty of all other Member States, in particular the great Powers, to do everything they can to facilitate and expedite this search.
161. We are now living through a period of tension and frustration. To quote the Secretary-General in the introduction to his annual report:
“there has been a serious decline in the standards of international ethics and morality, with States relying increasingly on force and violence as a means of resolving their international differences” [A/7201/Add.1,para, 174].
He adds that, if this trend is not reversed, “the future of international peace and security itself is indeed a very dark one” [ibid.]. Is that equally true if we try to place world developments in a slightly longer perspective?
162. There is no doubt that we live in a time of dramatically increased interdependence. That is true both in war and in peace. An armed conflict between the great Powers would now directly affect us all and cause destruction and suffering of unimaginable proportions. At the same time, however, the conditions for peaceful: coexistence have changed radically, drawing the peoples ever closer
together. Modern science and technology have broken down the barriers of time and space. No country can insulate itself against the changes caused by the application of modern technology to communications, information media, industry and commerce. This trend towards greater interdependence is unmistakable and it will continue to grow at an ever increasing pace. All the people on our planet are bound to a common destiny. Nobody can escape, not even by excursion into outer space or to other celestial bodies.
163. The fact that the deeper movement of history brings us towards increasing interdependence is something which we understand and experience only slowly and hesitatingly. Even more slowly and hesitatingly we recognize that our dependence on one another requires a fresh way of looking at international and social relationships, new concepts and methods for meeting the imperative need to create a stable and just world order.
164. One of the conclusions which can be drawn is that the United Nations must be strengthened in every way. If it is to represent fully the essential unity of mankind, the goal of universality of membership must be actively pursued, and, in particular, the doors of the Organization should be
opened to the People’s Republic of China.
165. Even though our recognition of the fact that we all belong together and must therefore keep together is incomplete and in no way measures up to the degree of factual interdependence, we can, nevertheless, point to certain hopeful signs. It seems, at last, to be understood by people everywhere that disarmament is a vital issue. Public opinion has begun to realize that the frantic arms race does not increase security and that the precise opposite is true. All Governments must nowadays take this opinion into account.
166. In the field of disarmament we have during the past year been able to register one important achievement. The non-proliferation Treaty promised to lay the foundation for further relaxation of tensions. It was also regarded as the first bridge to be crossed on the road towards more far-reaching measures of disarmament. Whatever reservations we in Sweden may have had in regard to the text of the Treaty while it was being negotiated, we are firmly convinced that these expectations are still well founded and that therefore the Treaty should be signed and ratified by as many countries as possible, as soon as possible, including, in particular, those countries whose participation is absolutely necessary to make the Treaty a living reality. It is to be hoped that the events in central Europe will not jeopardize this process.
167. The next steps will be crucial. Will it be possible to slow down the spiralling armaments race or will the race towards more destructive and more expensive arms continue unchecked?
168. A very heavy responsibility rests with the two super-Powers. The plans for an agreement regarding limitations on nuclear missiles, plans which were coming to fruition before the Czechoslovak crisis, must be pursued. A complete test-ban treaty must be hammered out and the
countries which continue to test nuclear weapons must be persuaded to stop doing so. We have a right to expect the super-Powers to give, without delay, concrete evidence of their declared intentions to take further steps on the road to nuclear disarmament.
169. Besides the problems of nuclear weapons, the threatening spectre of the development of biological and chemical weapons has been given increasing attention in the last few years. It is our hope that the studies initiated in this field will soon result in international agreements. Only by such means will it be possible to prevent the catastrophes which may follow if the development of those weapons is allowed to continue unchecked.
170. A field where interdependence is being recognized, although imperfectly, is that of economic and social development. It has been increasingly realized that welfare, like peace, is indivisible. Twenty years ago, the industrialized States were engaged in rebuilding their own economies. It was only thereafter that they began to take an active interest, gropingly at first, in the problems of development. No doubt, the total volume of contributions from the rich to the poor countries has increased substantially. But the pace of the increase has been dismally insufficient in relation to the gigantic needs. Moreover, in recent years the total volume of assistance from the industrialized States had tended to stagnate or decrease. Nevertheless, there seems to be a feeling in many quarters that we have ample time to solve the problem of development.
171. That is a dangerous misconception. A large part of the population of the earth is living on or below the minimum subsistence level. The population explosion may well create an untenable situation, if far-reaching measures are not taken. Time is running short. Fortunately, it would
appear that these grim facts are now penetrating deeper and deeper into the public consciousness. Welfare, like peace, is a goal which must be sought in a global context. It can never be secured in our time for only one country or one group of countries. We encounter here on the international level the same reality as in the national community; harmony can never be achieved without a reasonable and just distribution of the total resources, without solidarity.
172. The realization of the increased interdependence between peoples expresses itself in a change of psychological attitudes on race problems. There are today, twenty years after the adoption of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, not many régimes which dare proclaim openly that certain races are superior to others and that the supposedly superior should have a right to suppress the
supposedly inferior. There is a change here and a welcome change. But even if there has been some progress, racism remains one of the ugliest features of our times.
173. We are painfully reminded how easy it is to appeal to people’s prejudices against those who by colour or otherwise differ from the people around them. Racial antagonism and racial violence in certain industrialized States and also in some countries in the third world show that no community is free from these problems. The appeal to antisemitic prejudices which some communist States have
permitted themselves is another example that racial thinking is far from extinct.
174. The most serious case of such thinking occurs when a régime bases its official policies on conceptions of racial superiority. Such a régime finds itself inevitably in sharp opposition to the international community. By pursuing its irrational and hateful policy it creates international tensions and risks which justify energetic reactions on the part of the United Nations.
175. This is the background of the involvement of the United Nations in the racial problems of southern Africa and of the ever-increasing opposition of the international community to the policies of the South African Government, which openly defies the world Organization.
176. It is also part of the background of the Security Council decision on mandatory sanctions against the illegal minority régime in Southern Rhodesia. The conspiracy of interests between certain régimes is now reflected by the attempts by both South Africa and Portugal to reduce, by
various means, the effect of the sanctions decided upon by the United Nations. South Africa has even supplied armed forces in the struggle against the representatives of the majority of the population of Southern Rhodesia. It goes without saying that the world Organization must react against the actions of South Africa and Portugal. They involve a serious threat to the efforts to build a world
where races live in peace with one another and in mutual respect.
177. The sanctions against Southern Rhodesia are the first example of the world Organization undertaking the strongest peaceful enforcement action at its disposal. The policy of sanctions has, however, not yet led to the result intended. But this is no reason not to pursue the policy as
long as the régime in Salisbury is there to pursue its dangerous course. We note with satisfaction that the Security Council, by its resolution 253 (1968), has appointed a committee to follow the implementation of the decision on sanctions.
178. We also have to examine in which cases and under what conditions the weapon of sanctions can be applied in the future. Sweden is among those States which, in principle, consider it proper and necessary to apply economic sanctions in order to bring the policy of apartheid of South Africa to an end. Such measures, to become effective, require the participation of the major trading nations. We have also urged that efforts be increased to halt the obsolete and grossly provocative colonial policy of Portugal.
179. I do not wish to conclude my remarks on the situation in southern Africa without referring to the recent resumption of the trial in South Africa of the thirty-one Namibians. This trial has been condemned by the conscience of mankind, speaking through the United Nations, as a flagrant violation of the rights of those people and of the international status of Namibia. We must once again warn the Government of South Africa against the continuation of this travesty of justice and demand the release and repatriation of its victims.
180. Testimony to the growing feeling of interdependence among all peoples is the fact that, when people are struck by distress and suffering as a result of natural disasters or military action, a wave of sympathy and compassion goes around the world and gives an impulse to relief actions of
great magnitude. One example is the strong support for relief to Iran after the earthquake which took such a tragic toll of human lives. Another example is the wide and active participation in the humanitarian relief aid to the civilian population in Nigeria, which has been so cruelly struck by
the hostilities there. At its recent session in Algiers, the Organization of African Unity expressed deep concern for the suffering population. It called upon all parties to co-operate in order to ensure the rapid delivery of humanitarian relief aid to all those who are in need of it. This appeal has been heard all over the world. The Swedish Government wants to do all in its power to support the relief programmes for the Nigerian population. We have noted with interest that the Secretary-General has appointed a representative to assist in the relief and humanitarian activities for the civilian victims of the hostilities. We hope that the representative’s mission will be fruitful and
that the Secretary-General will provide, in appropriate form, information on its progress.
181. In another part of the world, Viet-Nam, the population is equally being subjected to inhuman suffering and great parts of the country are being destroyed as a result of warlike actions. In this case as well, sympathy and desire to help have given rise to actions and plans to bring relief.
Already at this time, while the war still rages, certain measures are being taken by such organizations as the Red Cross and UNICEF. These actions are necessarily of limited scope. When the war is over one day, a new phase of intensive efforts will begin in order to relieve distress, reduce suffering, repair material damage and start peaceful reconstruction.
182. It is, of course, up to the Viet-Namese themselves to decide what kind of aid they wish. But the international community must be ready, in the name of humanity, to help the Viet-Namese people to heal the wounds inflicted by the war. The Nordic countries have begun certain investigations concerning the likely needs for external aid and the methods to organize a relief action. No definite conclusions can yet be drawn from these investigations, but obviously an enormous relief operation will be required which can be made possible only through common efforts of a large number of countries.
183. The increasing mutual dependence is perhaps nowhere as clearly perceived as among the young. All over the world, young people seem to be ready to look beyond national frontiers. Underlying many reactions and attitudes of youth in the last few years is a strong feeling of world solidarity and a sense of common responsibility for peace and justice in the world. Young people revolt against prejudices and traditions which create dividing lines and barriers between nations, between social classes, between races, between rich and poor, between young and old. This is a healthy sign. When the youth of today assume increasing responsibility in their own countries and in international life, this attitude will, one hopes, lead to greater understanding among all peoples.
184. The agenda of this session of the General Assembly includes a number of items to which the long-term perspective which I have outlined here can be applied. May I recall one of the problems which, in a very succinct manner, expresses the interdependence among all peoples and which can be solved only through common efforts. I refer to the need to protect and improve the physical and
social environment in which we live. Modern technology and science have put immense resources into the hands of man with which to influence our environment. The change is often for the worse. Nature does not tolerate every kind of exploitation and misuse. If the natural balances are upset, the fundamental living-conditions of man are jeopardized. Such processes have to be stopped in time. But
man can also use his new power in order to shape the environment according to his wishes. Much research is being done in the field. Several United Nations organs are doing valuable work. What is required now is to focus public opinion round the world on the urgency and the gravity of these problems. My Government considers that an international conference would be the best method to fulfil this purpose. We intend to submit a proposal to this effect, in consultation with other countries, when the question is considered by the General Assembly pursuant to resolution 1346(XLV) unanimously adopted by the Economic and Social Council last summer.
185. Let me now sum up. It is our conviction that the deeper movement of history is towards ever-growing inter-dependence. In order to survive, humanity will have to co-operate. Viewed in this perspective the military conflicts which we now witness can be seen as temporary relapses into the primitive modes of thinking and acting of an earlier era. Let us react resolutely against relapses. Let us support the trend which is that of the future.