104. On behalf of Chile, I congratulate you, Mr. President, on your election, which denotes recognition of your ability, your intelligence, your impartiality and your faith in international peace and harmony. Your appointment does honour to you, to your country and to Africa, but, above all it does honour to the United Nations.
105. This is the first opportunity that the new Government of Chile has had of outlining here some of the basic principles guiding its foreign policy, particularly with respect to the United Nations.
106. The presidential elections held in my country last September were conducted in the freedom, hone sty and order characteristic of Chilean civic traditions. In a century and a half of independent life Chile has not tolerated dictatorships, nor, fortunately, has it experienced totalitarianism or racialism. Its political democracy has been and is exemplary. Nevertheless, profound social tensions are now calling for urgent and radical changes in national structures. This is why last September's Chilean elections were an event of historic consequence for my country: the change of a system of life, of a socio-economic system, of a scale of values governing human relationships. In this change the people honestly and consciously, and with the backing of important political parties and independent forces, chose a programme of Christian democracy; a revolution, in other words, capable of removing the old structures of society but carried out without despotism, without violence, without submission to foreign orders, and with respect for human rights and fundamental freedoms.
107. A process of profound changes has just begun in Chile, prompted by a people demanding the realization of all the ideals formed in the hundred years of our country's life. There were stages of juridicial organization, political progress and industrial development. It is possible to trace a whole chain of experiences and progress which will rightly show my country as being among the first to achieve authentic democracy. But everything accomplished is now culminating in the desires of a nation which seeks better opportunities to channel its creative energies and improve its individual and collective life. The nation is now living through a decisive event which can only be compared to that which, more than 150 years ago, put an end to our colonial dependence.
108. At that time we achieved freedom and sovereignty. Now we are going to achieve true social justice, free from egoism and privilege, in order to make way for a genuine, united democracy which will make the best use of our physical and human resources and of the potential accumulated by contemporary civilization. This movement has been carried out in all freedom and legality, with respect for all ideas and all men, the opposing forces being given their normal opportunity to exercise criticism, so necessary in a society like that of Chile, which seeks democratic methods in solving its contradictions, strengthening the spirit of initiative and ensuring that everyone participates in the country's destiny. The ballot boxes, not subversion or hatred, have been the tools of our revolution. For the first time in the Americas, there are the beginnings of an attempt at social change based on the postulates of Christian democracy, an integral and indivisible idea born of the anxieties of so many peoples, valid in many places yet subject to national characteristics. We are well aware that, as Abraham Lincoln once said, "the dogmas of the quiet past are inadequate to the stormy present. The occasion is piled high with difficulty, and we must rise with the occasion. As our case is new, so we must think anew, and act anew".
109. Our immediate practical goals are in line with the aspirations of ail developing countries: more schools, more opportunities for vocational and cultural training, more houses, more agricultural freeholders, more industrial production, more equitable taxation, more foreign trade, greater equality before the law. We have immense popular enthusiasm and a series of well-conceived plans to assist us in our task. We are aware of our difficulties and our limitations, but we know too that the faith and revolutionary will of a people resolutely turned towards the future can overcome the difficulties we shall encounter.
110. The new Government of Chile realizes, however, that the life of the country and the success of the undertaking we are embarking upon are determined not only by the will of its inhabitants but also by events in international life. To immerse ourselves in the source whence flow the great currents which are shaping the physiognomy of our time means that we recognize both the need to preserve our national life through reciprocal assistance with other countries, and the duty to make our contribution to the common task for the advancement of mankind. At other periods of history, peoples could isolate themselves. Now they are all threads of a single fabric; great or small, they will share the same fate, be it the destruction of civilization or the increase and harvesting of its fruits for the benefit of all.
111. Our foreign policy, while directed towards greater understanding and increased co-operation between all nations, will be independent and worthy. Chile is nobody's satellite; but neither is it a loose link in a world which demands co-ordination and understanding. We are prepared to transcend the classical moulds of indolent diplomacy in order to promote relations of friendship and co-operation with all countries, without ideological or political discriminations, without questioning their beliefs or the nature of their Governments. We have our own philosophy and our own place among the western nations, but we shall do everything in our power to clear the path leading to conciliation and understanding between nations, however opposed their interests may appear to be.
112. We reaffirm our faith in the United Nations as the soundest means of ensuring peace, stability and the progress of nations through international Cooperation. The successes outweigh the failures in the balance-sheet of our Organization. Its disappearance would plunge the world into the flood of passions and unbridled interests. Its stagnation or enfeeblement would profoundly disturb those peoples which see in it their safeguard and their guarantee of progress.
113. While it is not suggested that the United Nations should become a supranational governing body, it is necessary that Member States should accept a greater number of obligations with respect to it. Many of its resolutions are not carried out or have but a limited moral effect; nor have the obstacles to the better functioning of its conciliation and assistance machinery been totally eliminated.
114. The new Government of Chile considers that the United Nations should become the centre of gravity of international life. For this, it is necessary to reinforce its authority and the action of its organs. We are prepared to give it our complete enthusiastic support in any endeavour to invigorate it and increase its efficiency. With this same idea of giving the United Nations greater power, we think that the time has come to determine more positively the action of the regional groupings mentioned in the Charter. The prevailing tendency to link people according to their geographical circumstances, their affinities and their development plans is spreading in various continents. It could not be otherwise, because a world like ours, which is held together by the demands and merits of a levelling civilization, must be, not a mosaic of distant and disparate nations, but an organic community in which nations, like needles round a magnet, seek those that are similar and complementary organizing themselves in multinational, continental or regional associations. Let us hope that the day is not far off when we shall shorten our debates here, listening to only one voice speaking on behalf of the countries composing one region.
115. The notion of a regional grouping designed to practice interdependence as a means of promoting economic and social progress cannot be identified with that of a closed bloc, or continental or regional ascendancy or rivalry, in either politics or economics. For this reason, although their autonomy is recognized, regional groupings have to adjust their structures and actions to the noble principles of the Charter, which in recognizing their existence has also established their responsibility.
116. The American continent has a regional organization older than the United Nations. In the course of many years, it has elaborated a politico-juridical system and a series of standards and procedures which have benefited stability and coexistence in this part of the world. Nevertheless, with the passing of the years and the eruption of uncontainable social and economic unrest among our peoples, it has become necessary to renovate the Organization of American States, to revise the principles and machinery which may have become obsolete, to try other methods so that the Organization may meet the desire of our masses for well-being and progress.
117. We, the countries which live together within the Organization of American States, are in a very special situation, which we must examine clearly and honestly if we are to achieve higher forms of co-operation among ourselves. On one side there is the richest and strongest Power on earth, the United States; on the other side there is the group of Latin American countries weighed down by innumerable problems. On one side super-abundance, on the other want.
118. Although the structure of the system is democratic and the equality in law of the States is respected, there is a natural imbalance which can only be corrected to the extent that more beneficial collaboration is established between the United Sates and Latin America as a whole. According to studies of the Economic Commission for Latin America;, this imbalance has meant that our continent, Latin America, is growing poorer every year, to the benefit of the industrialized centres: in the last nine years the Latin American countries have lost $10,000 million because of the low prices of their raw materials, while receiving only $8,000 million for the financing of their economic development. In other words, the deterioration in Latin America’s terms of trade amounted to $2,000 million in that period. Thus the gap separating the countries of Latin America from those of Europe and Anglo-Saxon America is widening every year and the imbalance between wealth and poverty is becoming more marked. We must attribute this fact to what a United Nations economist called the“cumulative factors”, those factors which simultaneously enrich the rich countries and impoverish the poor ones as a direct consequence of their economic relationship.
119. That is why, when examining the "assistance" that the super-developed countries lend to others, to those which have contributed so enormously to their enrichment, I cannot refrain from recalling the lines of a satirical Spanish poet about the building of a hospital by a rich man called Juan de Robles: Robles, a man of charity, who loved to help the poor. Built for them this hospital... But first he made them poor.
120. If the political system of the Organization of American States is to have real meaning and to be respected by our peoples, it is essential that the equality of the States in law should be accompanied by accelerated economic and social development. There can be no equality in law if there is economic dependence. Chile is endeavouring to perfect its sovereignty; to do so, however, it must free itself from the financial dependence imposed by its limited development.
121. Fortunately, new "rays are being opened on this continent for a joint task which is to dispel old fears and suspicions, so that inter-American relations may reach a level satisfactory to all. Both the Government and the people of the United States have become convinced that Latin America must, without delay, be afforded greater assistance through better prepared plans. A result of this new arrangement, which goes beyond the simple idea of good neighbourliness, is the Alliance for Progress, which, with its initial faults overcome, must represent a prototype of collaboration adapted to the requirements of our peoples.
122. We are seeking a suitable association with the United States, an association in which obligations and rights would be shared. We do not want to go on selling raw materials in order to import manufactured goods. We want to use our own raw materials for the development of our well-being. We are sure that new and solid ties of friendship will be established between the great nation of the north and the nations of the south and that it will become easier for Latin America to overcome its serious backwardness. This is a mandate which, from beyond the tomb, is still being sent to all us Americans of the North, South and Centre by that far-sighted statesman, that generous and revolutionary spirit who understood the needs of his time and his generation, that President who a year ago sacrificed his life to establish peace and coexistence between peoples and nations.
123. At the historic crossroads at which America finds itself, it is Chile’s duty to show its profound desire to establish an authentic and dynamic community among the Latin American countries. We are prepared to show the world — and at all times — that we are both Chileans and Latin Americans; to do this, however, we must be more far-sighted in planning our existence as countries which were born together which are linked by common cultural traditions and which are now afflicted by the same problems. We do not want this affirmation of brotherhood to have a merely lyrical echo. We in Latin America are tired of wearisome rhetoric which has turned our brotherhood into a meaningless gesture.
124. Latin American integration must span various aspects of our life, of which the economic aspect requires the greatest determination and the most urgent attention. The new Government of Chile is prepared to promote, together with the other Latin American countries, the formulae and standards necessary to accelerate the progress of integration. We shall discuss with Governments, at the highest political level, the means whereby we may achieve common planning and institutional machinery which will translate our collective will into co-ordinated action. It seems that there is already identity of views. All that is lacking for the establishment of joint undertakings is the political decision. This great impulse of interpenetration must be extended to other fields so as to embrace the efforts of the young, the proletariat, universities, technicians, artists, so that we may know each other better and cultivate the enormous potentialities of our young countries on a joint basis.
125. An eloquent demonstration of the way in which the new Government of Chile will tackle the problem of Latin American integration is found in one of the articles of the draft constitutional reform which the President of the Republic submitted a week ago to the National Congress with a view to modernizing the machinery of the State and making it more dynamic. In his opinion, the progress of regional integration, the establishment of international trade and other bodies, often with supranational competence, requires that the State should be invested with powers enabling it to contribute to the constitution of such supranational institutions designed to promote and consolidate, in conditions of reciprocity, the integration of the Latin American nations.
126. By virtue of the proposed constitutional reform, the State of Chile shows its intention of divesting itself of specific attributes inherent in its sovereignty in order to implant them gradually, but resolutely, in the supranational bodies necessary to channel and institutionalize the latent desire of the Latin American peoples to speak with a single voice in the family of nations. These peoples want to take advantage of the wise experience of the States of the old Europe which succeeded in wiping out national interests and establishing a common market, despite the fact that, as Jacques Maritian wrote, referring to a thousand years of war and hatred, they were separated by a wealth of tears.
127. An essential prerequisite is that the disturbing circumstances which prevent us from drawing more closely together should disappear and that the process of our integration should be accomplished without exceptions. How can I at this point refrain from touching on a wound which is painful and distressing for the Latin American peoples? The new Government of Chile is greatly preoccupied with the case of Cuba, which for the past few years has been disturbing relations in the hemisphere and undermining our regional organization. The Ministers for Foreign Affairs of the American. Republics have met four times to consider the situation in the Caribbean. Precious energies have been wasted in an exhausting dispute but no satisfactory solution has been found. On the contrary, the problem is there facing us and it seems that the only result of so much labour was that a discussion which should have remained open was closed. We feel that to transform the case of Cuba into a blind alley or an insoluble dilemma can only lead to frustration and defeatism, which is unsuitable in young nations with a sense of the future.
128. Our opinions differ greatly from those of the Cuban regime; we should, however, be misrepresenting the truth we owe to the international community if we were not to state that the Government of Chile disagrees with the sanctions applied against that country at the meetings of Foreign Ministers at Punta del Este and Washington. My Government is ready to collaborate in the search for formulae which will bring Cuba back to the inter-American family and it hopes that the Cuban Government will make an effort in the same direction. We are helped by the conviction that the case in question, which is dividing brother nations, can only be settled equitably and definitively if the principles of self-determination, non-intervention and respect for human rights* which are the bases of inter-American coexistence and of the very Charter of the United Nations, are always borne in mind in their entirety .
129. This, however, is not the only problem worrying us. We are also disquieted by the continued existence of other trouble spots and situations threatening the peace of mind of the world community. Divided countries, the shameful Berlin wall, South-East Asia, the accumulation and spread of nuclear weapons, the maintenance of rival blocs, excessive military budgets, colonialist oppression, mockery of the self-determination of peoples, the trampling of human rights — all these are so many tentacles of the octopus which is still trying to strangle the world. It would be necessary to appraise each of these evils carefully in order to determine its degree of danger. The worst thing that could happen would be for humanity to become accustomed to living and playing with such risks as if they were misfortunes inherent in the age in which we live.
130. In some cases the principle of self-determination needs to be applied more rigorously; in others, there should be more decisive intervention by the Security Council, or the conclusion of agreements between the Powers concerned, or more meaningful advances on the road to disarmament, or the elimination of mistrust and suspicion. It is the task of the United Nations to go ahead with its study and application of all possible ways of preventing threats to peace as if it were necessary to constitute a real science of therapeutics to allay the fears of humanity.
131. We take comfort, however, from the fact that some positive factors, too, have appeared which offer the prospect of a better organization of world peace, particularly in regard to the atomic threat. They are minor but promising contributions: the substantial reductions in the production of fissionable material, the concrete proposals submitted to the Conference of the Eighteen-Nation Committee on Disarmament and the agreements concluded among the great Powers to undertake scientific and technological projects of universal benefit, as also the proposal to make Latin America a denuclearized zone — a proposal which Chile sponsored from the outset. We have no desire to manufacture, receive or acquire armaments of destruction and death. We wish to devote all our efforts to progress and to the struggle against inequality and poverty.
132. We hope that the powerful opposing political and military blocs will begin to lose their rigidity and that later on the need for them will disappear as the indispensable dialogue between the Powers is intensified and contact and co-operation between them are increased. Further encouragement for peace was provided by the recent Cairo Conference, at which the non-aligned countries, seeing no need to create a third force, which would be as dangerous as the other two, or to take refuge in passive neutralism, reaffirmed, in more organic form, the principle of preventing any breach of the peace and of perseverance in efforts to achieve better relations among States.
133. Nevertheless, amidst these favourable prospects, we were once again startled — by a clap of thunder: the nuclear explosion carried out by continental China. It is an auspicious sign when a nation struggling against the backwardness of centuries achieves the scientific advance implicit in the harnessing of atomic energy. An advance, indeed, but not a triumph, for it grieves us that such a great effort should not be directed towards liberation or wellbeing but reflects a stubborn and desperate ambition to achieve supremacy by becoming one of the conclave of countries which hold the atomic monopoly.
134. In continental China we are now confronted with a problem of new dimensions. This nation, the most populous on earth, seems to be beyond the reach of moral law because it is outside the community of nations and has a free hand to act as it pleases, without being subject to the principles and commitments that restrict the individual action of other States.
135. The Chinese nuclear explosion may tempt other ( countries already endowed with the scientific knowledge and technological resources to carry out similar experiments; in the belief that the balance of forces in the world has changed and that they might be left behind. Nuclear proliferation would lead us straight to disaster. While we are discussing peace here, a spectre is taking shape in the world which is capable not only of invalidating our exhortations but also of threatening the very existence of mankind.
136. This General Assembly is called upon to consider a few matters connected with the recommendations of the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development which was held at Geneva this year. It will also have to take concrete decisions in order to put some of the recommendations of that Conference into effect.
137. Generally speaking, the developing countries cannot feel satisfied with the results of the Geneva Conference as compared with their aspirations and the urgency of their problems. The Conference did not produce any formal commitments on the part of the developed countries to take immediate steps to resolve such problems and the specific requests of the developing countries were, in general, unheeded or deferred.
138. The Chilean Government wishes to point out, however, that, although the Conference did not produce adequate and specific commitments, it did officially initiate a process for gradually overcoming the difficulties in the foreign trade of the developing countries and there was clear, and in most cases unanimous, acceptance by the international community of the need to take steps to that end.
139. It may therefore be considered that there is an undertaking of broad scope to which the developed countries are solemnly committed and which covers all the main objectives which the developing countries have been persistently pursuing. It is an undertaking to give our basic export products greater access to markets and at the same time to work towards the stabilization and improvement of commodity prices; to encourage diversification of trade by means of increased exports of manufactures and semi-manufactures; to systematize the characteristics of external financial aid; to improve the conditions of invisible trade; and in regard to many other objectives the developed countries recognized the need for collective action, accepted the broad lines of such action and undertook to work out practical rules of application. This multilateral undertaking, for the effective implementation of which we in the developing countries must be prepared to wage a constant struggle, is obviously a valuable achievement which puts us on the right road to the future.
140. We are convinced that little by little the international community will find practical means of satisfying the legitimate aspirations of the developing countries. What we need for that, however, is a world body, endowed with an independent secretariat, to start functioning as soon as possible with the specific task of promoting definite solutions for the trade and development problems of the non-industrialized countries and with sufficient authority to take the necessary decisions to that end. Without such a body, the possibility of converting the general undertaking that emerged from the Geneva Conference into an effective set of lines of action will be much more remote. It is for that reason that the Chilean delegation considers it of crucial importance that the institutional machinery unanimously recommended by the Geneva Conference should be put into operation. It is through the action of the proposed world body that the process already initiated can and should go forward.
141. We wish to reaffirm in the most forthright terms Chile's anti-colonialist position. We hope that swift action will hasten the process of total liberation of colonial peoples, in accordance with General Assembly resolution 1514 (XV). In the Special Committee on the Situation with regard to the Implementation of the Declaration on the Granting of Independence to Colonial Countries and Peoples, Chile has supported all constructive and harmonious efforts to strengthen the ability of the United Nations to help peoples to attain independence.
142. At the same time we trust that the application of the principle of self-determination will not lead to deceptive solutions which, while appearing to be beneficial, may throw the peoples which attain independence headlong into anarchy and poverty. Final victory over colonialism will be consolidated only when liberation leads to the economic and social well-being of peoples hitherto held back under colonial rule and when they are free from foreign interference or intervention
143. Without infringing any of the principles of resolution 1514 (XV), we consider that the United Nations should ensure that small territories with scanty populations and meagre resources are not abandoned to their fate and allowed to drift when they relinquish their colonial status. Again, independence should not be granted as a result of the application of self- determination to groups of settlers who are nationals of the colonial Powers, nor should it be proclaimed by racial minorities who wish to perpetuate their privileges by continued oppression of the majority of the people of the territory. Furthermore, artificial countries should not be created out of the dismemberment of other countries. Let us show our support and sympathy for all those peoples who are still under colonial rule and whose aspirations to freedom we fully share.
144. It is discouraging to see that there are still places in the world where racial discrimination is practised, either in the usual ways or in the form of apartheid, a heinous doctrine that is contrary to all moral principles. Year after year from this rostrum we denounce such practices, which not only do physical and spiritual harm to millions of people but endanger world peace. We see minorities backed by force and defiant to the last, gambling with their fate as they sow the seeds of hatred and resentment and refusing to be convinced that the only reasonable solution is to grant all men equal rights and opportunities. Let us hope that, besides moral condemnation, this General Assembly will devise practical formulas which will bring relief to the victims of discrimination and a procedure to prevent the continued application of a racial policy repudiated by men of intelligence and culture.
145. My Government attaches particular importance to the promotion of human rights in the world. According to our ideology, basic reforms of our economic and social system go hand in hand with a proper appreciation of the attributes of the human person. It is not possible to think of progress founded on the enslavement of individuals, or of ah abstract freedom resting on backwardness and poverty.
146. In this connexion we must pay particular attention to the elimination of discrimination against women. This question is very topical for Chile, because the Government's programmes include the granting of greater rights and opportunities to women so that they may have a worthy part to play in association with men in raising the standards of the material and spiritual life of our nation. The women of my country, suffering privations and hardships, have given an example of sincerity, fervour and steadfastness and are firmly committed to the drive for national renewal in Chile. From this world rostrum and on behalf of my Government, I pay them a warm tribute of admiration.
147. The United Nations is at present particularly concerned with the study of the principles of friendly relations and co-operation among States, a subject which is in line with the concept of peaceful coexistence. This is one of the most positive ideas to have emerged in recent times and it is intended to have political, moral and juridical value and to provide a rational basis for a stable and fruitful peace.
148. It is no longer possible for countries to become dangerous rivals simply because they uphold different political, religious or ethical views. No one wishes for world-wide uniformity in the various aspects of social or cultural organization. Surely it is better for the human spirit that ideas and institutions should flourish with perpetual dynamism, provided that they do not seek expansion with aggressive intent or for political domination. In times like the present, fraught with danger, it is important for the future of mankind that countries should not find in differences of regime sufficient grounds for hostility or hatred, or for taking up entrenched positions or retreating into aloofness.
149. Peaceful co-existence requires an active, not a passive, outlook. The countries which took part in the recent Cairo Conference were right when they affirmed that coexistence presupposed existence. There are countries which have a powerful and radiant existence. There are others which barely manage to exist and merely vegetate in the said gloom of underdevelopment. Coexistence will be effective when it becomes a collective driving force assisting every country to achieve progress and the full development of its personality.
150. Peaceful coexistence rests on such principles as the sovereign equality of States, self-determination, non-interference in the internal or external affairs of States, respect for territorial integrity and political independence, and the pacific settlement of disputes. The codification of these principles would be very useful in preventing friction between countries. No one need be dismayed by the difficulty of arriving at a definition of these principles so that abstractions may be translated into legal terms of universal validity. We cannot allow ourselves to be frightened by the difficulties encountered thus far. On the contrary, it is our duty to establish a firm legal basis for peace.
151. I should like now, to echo some of the words in the message that Eduardo Frei, the new President of Chile, addressed to the peoples of the world on the day that he took office, after a long but exemplary electoral struggle.
152. On behalf of Chile, I have the honour this afternoon to greet the representatives of the sister nations of Latin America, which have no desire to live according to outworn legal and diplomatic formulas or to go on being the dwindling chorus of the great Powers. I am honoured to greet the representatives of the United States, a friendly nation with which we seek a genuine association in worthy equality and a genuine alliance enabling us to achieve progress in freedom. I am honoured to greet the representatives of the peoples of ancient Europe whose presence, images and ideas have impregnated our minds and which are now showing us the miracle of their spectacular recovery and their extraordinary rejuvenation after thousands of years of antagonism. I am honoured to greet the representatives of the peoples of Africa and Asia which, like us, are striving to ensure that justice, in whose name we have been fighting for the distribution of wealth in every country, shall prevail in international relations. I am honoured to greet this afternoon the representatives of the socialist countries, with which, despite the profound ideological differences separating us, we desire to live in peace and friendship. I am honoured to greet, on behalf of President Frei, all the representatives gathered here and I offer them the Chilean Government’s co-operation in the great work of justice and peace laid upon us by the Charter. The people of Chile look with hope to this General Assembly. We are sure that the soul of the United Nations is to be found in the peoples who trustingly await our decisions and our guidance. If we can make our voices echo them and if we are capable of representing the poverty and the aspirations of the common man in our countries, our words will carry greater weight and whatever we accomplish will be more effective. May God enlighten our debates!