The people of Argentina, on whose behalf I am addressing this Assembly, wish to support all those who have spoken here in favour of the maintenance of peace and friendship among all the peoples of the world. There is no more urgent and vital undertaking for the men of today — those of all regions of the world, of all beliefs and of all social classes — than that of preserving peace. God created man with the mark of brotherhood, so that he might survive and multiply throughout the ages. War and destruction challenge that divine purpose, especially since another war might extinguish man from the face of the earth. The peoples of the whole world, anxious and afraid, come to this universal forum confident that the breath of creation, the supreme act which gave us life, will inspire the hearts and minds of all the statesmen, and thus forever banish war and weapons of mass destruction as instruments of international policy.
4. I should like to pay a tribute of respect and admiration to the memory of Mr. Dag Hammarskjold, the late Secretary-General of the United Nations. Mr. Hammarskjold was not only the administrative head of this Organization; he also fulfilled highly responsible functions in international life. By the vigour of Ms action and the exceptional qualities he displayed in the fulfilment of his task, Mr. Hammarskjold became in this Organization an official whom it was difficult to replace, and his death in the line of duty constitutes a loss the magnitude of which will be fully realized as time goes by and all that his activities meant for peace becomes clear,
5. The nation which I represent is a young one. It has just celebrated 150 years of independence. Born in the early years of the nineteenth century, it was guided by the liberal ideas of the American and French Revolutions when the world-wide interchange of goods and ideas was breaking up the trading monopolies and political autocracies and was spreading the principles of democracy, freedom and self- determination of peoples.
6. We Argentines subsequently fought for the right to trade freely with Europe, without the discrimination and restrictions which the colonial system had imposed. We fought for our national self-determination, vis-a-vis not only Spain but other European Powers which, disputing the maritime and trading routes with Spain, were putting pressure on the new Republic of the River Plate with the object of incorporating it in their spheres of influence. As our nation grew and became an important producer of food and raw materials, the great industrial nations vied with one another in seeking to gain control of that wealth. The history of our country is a chronicle of the heroic efforts co the Argentine people to overcome its internal dissensions, consolidate its national unity and defend its political and economic independence.
7. From the earliest days of the Republic, we Argentines clearly sensed our inviolable national sovereignty, the ties of ideals and interests which bound us to the sister nations of Latin America, and our obligation to be generous and open-handed members of the world community. We were at one and the same tim-3 Argentines, Americans and citizens of the world. The patriot armies which gave us independence marched with the Liberator, San Martin, across the high mountains of the Andes to liberate Chile and Peru — to liberate them, but never to dominate them.
8. Invariably, with exemplary consistency, Argentina's international policy has been based on the three fundamental principles of international life — the legal equality of States, non-intervention in domestic affairs, and the self-determination of peoples. These
considerations determined our delegates' actions in the League of Nations, in the Organization of American States and in the-United Nations.
9. We invariably practise a policy of respect for international legal order, and never fail to support and implement the principle of the peaceful settlement of disputes by means of arbitration, conciliation and good offices. We have opposed foreign intervention and any kind of pressure, whether political, economic, legal or ideological, by one nation upon another. That is how we acted when an extra-continental Power attempted by force to collect a debt from an American nation, and it was the same when any nation attempted to change the Government or political system of another, or when two sister nations went to war. In this last case we were always ready to offer our good offices.
10. There has not been a single instance in which the Argentine nation has supported aggression, outside interference in the policy of any country, or recourse to armed conflict for the settlement of international disputes. On the other hand, there is abundant evidence of Argentine action taken to defend the self- determination of peoples and universal peace — from the activities of the Argentine delegations at Geneva after the First World War down to those of our representatives in the United Nations. This moral authority encourages us to confirm, before the world, the unequivocal international position of the nation which I here have the honour to represent.
11. This assembly of nations reflects, dramatically, the picture of the contemporary world. The United Nations, which in 1945 brought together the States which had been victorious in the last war, has opened its doors to those which were then the conquered nations, and it now comprises practically 100 States, a third of which are nations having recently acquired independent status. There are represented here all the age-old beliefs of humanity, all the races, cultures and political and social systems; the most powerful nations and the most humble; those that once ruled over vast empires, and the colonies which have now been freed from their former overlords. There is thus being realized the ideal of an international organization excluding none, practising no discrimination or inequality, and bringing together nearly all the sovereign States of the world, represented by their lawful Governments and on a footing of absolute equality. The Argentine Republic will support any effort to make the Organization more universal and its delegations more genuinely representative.
12. For the first time in the history of international relations, a world organization is functioning in which the voice of all peoples is heard. Bach of the Governments associated in it can express itself freely, and no nation or group of nations has a predominating or decisive influence over the rest in the important decisions of this body. Despite the natural limitations circumscribing the authority of any international legal body and preventing it from exercising supranational powers, the United Nations today represents, authentically and democratically, the conscience of mankind. That is why the Argentine Republic will support any efforts to increase the authority and prestige of the United Nations and the independence and responsibility of its principal organs.
13. In this great Assembly is also reflected the most significant and decisive event of the century — that which will give a historic name to our epoch. I refer to the heroic and majestic awakening of the new nations of Asia and Africa — to the unprecedented fact that millions of human beings, belonging to different peoples and separated by vast deserts and impassable mountains, have joined, within barely twenty years, in a great movement of liberation and of entry into the community of sovereign nations. The Argentines warmly • welcome their Asian and African brothers and pledge their whole-hearted co-operation in the arduous but glorious process of promoting freedom and ever-growing prosperity, both for those peoples which have already won their political independence and for those which are still fighting to obtain it.
14. We peoples of America won our political independence a century and a half ago. Yet we know that sovereignty is not a legal formula, but a national will to power and self-determination which does not end, but only begins, with the political act of emancipation. Economic under-development is an enemy of a people's true sovereignty no less menacing than external political factors which restrict or stultify it. No backward country is completely independent. The political strife and the institutional distortions and setbacks which overtake the new democratic republics from the moment when the proclaim their independence are not the casual whims of nature. They are a consequence of the economic and social poverty, of the weakness and anachronism of economic structures, which continue to exist after the political act of emancipation. Highly developed and prosperous peoples are apt to judge severely, and from an academic standpoint, the difficulties, errors and abuses which mark the practice of democracy in the new nations. But democracy is not a fiat transmitted to mankind from above; it is a slow process, completed with suffering ap.d even with bloodshed by peoples that are endeavouring to govern themselves.
15. As an American country, we aim at the permanent consolidation of representative democracy throughout the continent and the complete guarantee of republican liberties, as well as at the fullest possible protection of human rights.
16. The only way of helping peoples to practise democracy and freedom to the full is to collaborate with them in their economic development and social well-being, which are essential to their cultural and political progress. There is no more effective way of delaying and obstructing that progress than by interfering from outside in the domestic vicissitudes of such countries and trying to impose institutions and customs on them, since these cannot be copied or invented but can be created only in the heart and mind of the people concerned. In this exceptional and serious world situation, the international community has no duty more urgent than that of assisting the underdeveloped countries of Latin America, Asia and Africa.
17. The world which is emerging, the varied and numerous congregation of new peoples — such is the pointer of the scales where the future of mankind is concerned. Our ideals and interests, both immediate and long-range, coincide with the universal desire for concord and lasting peace. We shall therefore use all the weight of our influence in the United Nations to find adequate solutions for such fundamental problems as disarmament, the banning of nuclear tests, the question of peace with Germany, the peaceful solution of colonial problems, and all other questions affecting the peace of the world.
18. The full development of our economies depends upon international financial assistance and the liberalization and expansion of trade between all regions of the world. Only in an atmosphere free from tension and mistrust among the great Powers will it be possible to achieve the ideal of universal and controlled disarmament. The continuation of the disarmament negotiations would of itself indicate and encourage a relaxation of tension. Failure to reach, at least, an urgent agreement on the absolute prohibition of nuclear tests in every form and in every part of the world is quite inexcusable.
19. Disarmament, in its turn, will liberate vast financial and technical resources which the great Powers can use to promote the economic development of the under-developed countries. That contribution cannot be measured solely in terms of money and technical assistance. It involves an active policy of international solidarity which will serve as an example to sustain, throughout the world, the ideals of freedom, justice and respect for human dignity. When the international community succeeds in replacing its present anxieties and tensions by collective action for help to the new emerging world, the ideals of democracy and human freedom will have won the battle throughout the globe.
20. We peoples of Latin America, who by tradition and calling belong to the world governed by the ethical and cultural values of the West, are in virtue of those same principles bound to side with the peoples that are fighting to establish their freedom and to ensure for all their sons a level of living compatible with their moral dignity. In the same way, we have a right to expect that the great Powers will respect our sovereignty and help us to overcome backwardness and poverty.
21. The philosophical and juridical idea of the international community is, in its origins, Western and Christian. During the Middle Ages and until the end of the eighteenth century, it was confined to Christian Europe. But the selfsame notion of Christian brotherhood and of Christianity's world-wide vocation caused that closed, exclusive community to change, little by little, into an association open to every system of values in the modern world. The present international community is a "plural" society, in which different cultures and ethical and legal systems exist side by side. It is based on the principle of the peaceful coexistence of all its members and on mutual respect for ideological and political differences. Hence, when we proclaim our Western and Christian affiliation, we are postulating no concept of exclusiveness or of hostility towards other ideas. Nor are we seeking to establish antagonism between blocs or to set one group of nations against another. On the contrary, the Christian concept of life predisposes us towards tolerance, coexistence in freedom and in justice, and the reign of peace among men and peoples.
22. There is nothing so opposed to this idea of brotherhood than the rivalries and mistrust that are confining the world to this dangerous no man's land between war and peace which is identified with the term "cold war". The "cold war" is negative and sterile because it dictates the investment, in weapons which are daily becoming more destructive, of vast resources which science and modern technology could use to accelerate human progress at an incredible pace. The "cold war" limits and hampers material and cultural exchanges between peoples that are separated into rival camps. Lastly, the "cold war" constitutes a permanent threat of total war, demoralizing and paralysing the creative spirit of man.
23. The under-developed countries have the most to lose from this division of the world, because it is they that stand in greatest need of international cooperation for their own development, and because war would overtake them as a disastrous consequence of the rivalries between the great Powers, in whose decisions they would have had no part whatever.
24. For the under-developed countries, peace and disarmament are essential to existence itself, as well as to the realization of a universal ideal which they, too, uphold. Both in the United Nations and by unilateral diplomatic action, these nations must take positive steps, whenever opportunity arises, to try to reconcile conflicting interests; they must refrain from any acts which might help to poison the international atmosphere yet further; and they must always choose the path of negotiation, which excludes coercion and threats as methods of solving international disputes.
25. The Argentine Republic will work, so far as lies in its power, for a reduction of international tension and for the use of negotiation and the peaceful methods of conciliation and arbitration, in all the international organizations, regional or world-wide, of which it is a member.
26. That is the spirit underlying the most recent international acts of the Argentine Government, such as the Agreement of Uruguay, signed on 21 April 1961 with the Government of Brazil; the Declaration of Vina del Mar of 11 September 1961, signed with the Government of Chile; and the Act of the Conference of Punta del Este, of 17 August 1961. In all these instruments, the Argentine Republic has confirmed the immutable principles of its international policy and its adherence to the ideal of inter-American and world co-operation.
27. The Argentine Republic is a member of the Organization of American States, and confirms its most resolute adherence to the high principles of Pan-Americanism, which have preserved the indestructible cohesion and solidarity of the American family of nations on the basis of respect for individual sovereignty and for the principle of self-determination and non-intervention. The Argentine Government also believes that President Kennedy's "Alliance for Progress" marks the beginning of a new era of the relations between the United States of America and the Latin American republics. The people of the United States realize that the reinforcement of democratic institutions throughout the hemisphere is the effective and essential basis of continental solidarity. It also realizes that the fate of those institutions is closely bound up with the economic, social and cultural development of Latin America, for which it has pledged substantial and urgent assistance. The Argentine Republic expresses its most fervent hope for the success of this co-operative effort, and has repeatedly declared its conviction that the speedy and generous implementation of the "Alliance for Progress" will enable the nations of Latin America to expedite the fulfilment of their own development plans and intensify their own efforts to overcome the backwardness and structural weakness of their economies.
28. Systems and programmes of inter-American collaboration are not, incompatible with Latin America's participation in world trade and co-operation. None of the agreements I have mentioned — to which should be added the Treaty of Montevideo, which instituted the Latin American Free Trade Association — in any way excludes or conflicts with the system of world co-operation. Latin America is uniting in order to be able to accelerate its rate of development and thus contribute more effectively to world trade. The more our peoples expand, strengthen and coordinate their economies, the greater will be the amount of the goods and services which they can offer to and receive from the world. The developing economies offer vast opportunities for capital investment and technical assistance from the industrial nations, whose rapid expansion requires equally rapid development on the part of the backward nations. At the same time, these latter nations are increasing the output and improving the quality of their foodstuffs and raw materials for the world market, to which they will send their products at competitive prices. My Government has therefore proclaimed the right of the Latin American nations to participate in all trading arrangements made by the European communities, the traditional markets for their products. In our view any discriminatory or protectionist policy, or formation of blocs on the part of the industrial nations will militate against the principles of international co-operation and multilateral trade which constitute the only guarantees of lasting peace.
29. In the past, peace was an aspiration of mankind — an ideal, tragically frustrated at times by man's blindness. Today, with his tremendous powers of invention, man has created such instruments of destruction that peace is no longer a Utopia but has become an absolute necessity. Man, who henceforth can kill his fellows only at the risk of destroying the species, has at the same time become the explorer and conqueror of the polar snows, the master of the deep and of stellar space. Science has laid the universe at the feet of the earth's inhabitants. Such science has no frontiers and pays no heed to ideologies or nationalities. It is as universal in nature as the cosmonaut who circles the globe and looks down upon the minuteness of his abode. And it is in this realm, opened up by man's prodigious intellect, that men and peoples divided by beliefs and interests exist. Man's creative capacity — his ability to transform nature, to wrest from it its uttermost resources, to produce unlimited matter and energy from the splitting of the tiny, invisible atom — ushers in an era unparalleled in human history. No wealth, no material achievement is now beyond the immediate reach of mankind, to be distributed freely and fully for the satisfaction of the petty and transitory needs of the human race.
30. The same act which enables man to journey to the stars is a sure instrument for reconciling the hopes of peoples of the greatest diversity and the most conflicting beliefs. The brotherhood of man has received an unprecedented stimulus from this miraculous flowering of the intellect. The Utopia of which man has dreamed throughout history is now within our grasp. And yet, on this earth, where such a miracle has been performed, two thirds of the people are living in poverty and ignorance while nations accumulate weapons of destruction which they know must never be used and which consume gigantic resources. I belong to a country which is part of this "held back" section of humanity.
31. At this moment, my people is making a tremendous sacrifice to overcome its difficulties and to build up a community which will be politically, democratically and economically independent, prosperous, and happy.
32. On behalf of my country and the millions of people who are striving for their freedom and well- being in this era of the conquest of space, I express my profound faith in the conscience of humanity and in the moral values and intellect of man. I am confident that the representatives assembled here, and their respective Governments, will make this great assembly of peoples into the most active instrument for the peace and well-being of all the inhabitants of the earth. God, who sees man ascend to His heavenly realms, will give him the wisdom to set aside his disputes, and will inspire him to turn his mastery over nature into a common endeavour to redeem the human race from poverty, ignorance and oppression.