1. I should just like, Mr. President, to convey to you the most sincere congratulations of the Mexican delegation on your well-deserved appointment to direct the work of this Assembly. Your election, in our opinion, implies a threefold tribute from all Member States to your outstanding personal qualities, to the prominent role which your country has played in the United Nations, and to the African continent’s growing importance in this Organization.
2. As is probably known to all, just three weeks ago, on 1 December, there was a change of Executive in Mexico. In his inaugural message to the Congress and through it to the whole nation, the new President, Mr. Gustavo Dfaz Ordaz, outlined his Government's foreign policy in these words: "The outstanding fact in international affairs is that the post-war period has come to an end. The world is on the threshold of a new phase in history, the features of which cannot yet be clearly determined; but we may hazard the guess that it will be different from the period immediately preceding it. "Man's spectacular conquests in the vast field of outer space and in the astonishingly minute field of the atom naturally convey the impression that the barrier between the possible and the impossible has been broken down. It now seems that everything is possible, or will be in the near future. "This is perhaps one reason for the impatience shown by men who for centuries have hoped and suffered; it unites them far more than any of the ideologies bequeathed to us by the nineteenth century. "The mere fact of living through these fascinating moments in tha history of mankind places upon us an immense responsibility, which assumes even greater proportions for those holding a position of authority. "I speak as a typical Mexican, as one among many; but the vote of my people, freely given, means that my voice is also that of Mexico. I desire the message from that voice to be one of optimism and harmony; but I would also adjure all peoples, particularly those whose greater power invests them with greater responsibility, to lend their support in the campaigns, carried on jointly or at least simultaneously, against the enemies of mankind-poverty, ignorance, disease, insecurity, oppression, injustice and warlike fanaticism, all of them sterile remains of a world that has already ceased to exist, For if man has achieved such spectacular victories in technology and science, how could it be conceivable that he should not succeed in advancing the political, economic and social spheres? "Both the most exalted idealism and the most elementary common sense stimulate us to defend peace, since peace is now essential to man's continued existence. "If we want peace, we must fight against the conditions that lead to the possibility of war. Mexico favours disarmament, beginning with denuclearization. We hold that peace will be guaranteed only to the extent that objective conditions are created in which all peoples will endeavour to consolidate it. "We must repeat that peace means, not only the absence of war, but effective co-operation between nations for the purpose of coping with the age-old problems that assail man in all latitudes. Only by a great pooling of effort can we establish firm bases for a true peace and, even so, permanent and resolute efforts will be required if peace in its true meaning is to be preserved. "Mexico's foreign policy is governed by basic principles and not by the caprice or arbitrariness of men, who are but transitory creatures. It is the fruit of our unhappy history and the inescapable result of our experience. It draws inspiration from old ideals and is implemented in accordance with principles of lasting validity. In a world like ours, in which rapid and tremendous changes are taking place, our foreign policy is also, and must continue to be, an instrument in the service of the over-all development of the community. "In the present-day scene, Mexico appears as a nation asserting its independence ever more vigorously. In its independence, however, it is aware that no country, rich or poor, great or small, powerful or weak, can live in isolation. This conviction, combined with the Mexican people's cordial openheartedness, leads us to offer and desire friendship with all the peoples of the world. By friendship we mean a disposition first to respect the integrity and dignity of a friend and then to endeavour to understand him, with a view to serving him better. It is the noblest bond by which men can be united. "It is our aim that each individual should control his own destiny in society and that, on the basis of this right, each community should govern itself freely. "Non-intervention and the right of self-determination are principles which, for more than a century, we have constantly upheld. "We were born under the sign of anti-colonialism and in the past we have suffered invasion, attack and intervention. It is therefore in the very essence of our nationality to condemn the domination of any country by another, regardless of how it originates or of what form it takes. "Reason and justice tell us that there is no dispute between men or between peoples that cannot be settled by peaceful means. We feel we have a special responsibility to fight for this principle in inter- American relations. "When the powerful man bows to justice, he assumes an attitude that does not diminish or lower him, but rather honours and exalts him; as for the weak man, the law has always been his best protection. "At a time when distances in the world are becoming smaller but its problems are growing greater, national and international solidarity must become stronger and more intensified. "We are firmly convinced that peace and international co-operation require the smooth functioning and strengthening of general and specialized international bodies such as the United Nations and the regional inter-American agencies. We shall not be sparing in our support of them. "When we in Mexico postulate a policy of independence for ourselves, we also postulate the full independence of all nations, so that, from collaboration voluntarily given by peoples which are all free and equal, genuine international solidarity may arise. "We have developed and are continuing to develop mainly as a result of our own efforts, although we in no way undervalue the co-operation which we have on honourable terms received. We feel we are entitled to assert that in vast areas of the world, and of course in some areas of our own hemisphere, there are some countries which need outside co-operation much more than others do, and that they are entitled to receive it in forms and by procedures which, do no injury to their dignity, sovereignty and natural essence. "If in the domestic field many injustices have been corrected by such means as social security systems, minimum wages and guaranteed prices, there is no reason why in the international field — and specifically in the regulation of trade and in financial cooperation — moral conscience and a sense of justice and human solidarity, which would in any case represent sound and healthy foresight, should not prevent an increase in the gap between the prosperity of the few and the poverty of the many, provided that the latter for their part are prepared to put their shoulder to the wheel. We know that, fundamentally, prosperity and good fortune come to no one from outside. "We shall continue to do our best to ensure that, particularly in the vital field of foreign trade, cooperation takes form in which fairness is combined with effectiveness. "Mexico desires peace throughout the world; it desires friendship with every people of the world, though, obviously, friendship of an even closer and warmer type with the peoples that form the community of our continent. "To our immediate neighbours to the north and to the south, we reaffirm our resolute will to make our relations with them an example of cordial and constructive coexistence. "The Charter of Punta del Este set the formal seal of a hemispheric agreement on objectives which the Mexican people has long sought, in the most noble of its struggles. It leaves to each country the responsibility for planning and directing its own progress; but it makes social justice the prerequisite and condition for that progress, and prescribes cooperation as a complementary though indispensable tool in the long, difficult but noble task of raising the level of living which is so desperately low in many rural areas of America. "It is unfair to Mexico to describe it as wishing to set itself up as a leader of Latin America. We make no such claim, nor do we desire such a status. Within the Latin American community, Mexico can be at the head, at the tail, or in the middle, according to circumstances, so far as any given aspect of our life is concerned; but its only aspiration is to be just another member of a group that is uniting its efforts for the betterment of all. "What Mexico wants is to be in intimate brotherhood with all its fellow-Latin Americans." Such is what the President of Mexico said in his inaugural speech.
3. It is not my intention to review, here, the items which, as every year, are included in the General Assembly's agenda and which, in the case of the nineteenth session, amount to almost a hundred. I shall confine myself to examining briefly a few of them, selected both for their intrinsic importance and for the special importance attached to them by our delegation.
4. With regard to the first two of these items, my statement will be partly in the nature of a report, since they are questions which have recently been the subject of international study and decision in my country's capital, during two meetings over whose work I myself, by a happy coincidence, had the signal honour to preside.
5. At the invitation of the Mexican Government, the Special Committee established by the General Assembly under its resolution 1966 (XVIII) of 16 December 1963 met from 27 August to 2 October last at Mexico City in order to study four basic principles of international law concerning friendly relations and cooperation among States: namely, prohibition of the use or threat of force, the peaceful settlement of disputes, non-intervention and the sovereign equality of States.
6. The results of the five weeks of thorough deliberation by the Committee are recorded in the report [A/5746] which is one of those submitted for the consideration of the present session.
7. My delegation feels that the task entrusted to the Special Committee, and that which will fall to the Sixth Committee when it comes to consider the Special Committee's report, are of exceptional importance. It is a question, not merely of progressive development and codification, but of the finding of formulas to facilitate more effective application of the principles mentioned, as the Assembly itself said in its resolution 1966 (XVIII).
8. It is inconceivable that peace can be consolidated without the scrupulous observance of these all-important principles, which form, so to speak, the nucleus of the United Nations Charter. We must bear in mind that at the San Francisco Conference they were inevitably formulated in very general terms. One of them — non-intervention by one State in the affairs of another — is not even explicitly stated in the Charter. In order, therefore, that these principles shall today acquire their full force as rules of conduct for States and United Nations bodies, it will be necessary to discover and define their political and juridical scope in the light of the tremendous changes that have taken place in the post-war international society.
9. As has been often and so very rightly stressed, prohibition of the use of force, for example, is a principle whose scope and content are very different today from what they were in the pre-nuclear era. Again, the more or less numerous exceptions recognized under the classic concept of non-intervention in the nineteenth and early in the twentieth century are today totally incompatible with the principle of the sovereign equality of all States, on which, as the Charter explicitly stipulates, our Organization is based.
10. The Special Committee was not able, during the brief time that it met, to achieve unanimous agreement on the principles under consideration. This is hardly surprising, given the complexity of the questions involved. In order to complete this task, it will be necessary, inter alia, for the efforts of the Special Committee to be combined with those of the General Assembly, and for the opinion and will of the international community, which is represented here in almost its entirety, to be clearly shown.
11. However, my delegation considers that, although the Special Committee did not succeed in establishing final texts, its labours were extremely fruitful. For the first time since the San Francisco Conference, a group of Member States, sufficiently representative both geographically and in terms of the main legal systems in the world, systematically studied, through serious, high-level work, the meaning and scope of the basic principles of the Charter. The main points of divergence were clarified; dominant trends were outlined with greater precision, and some of them were embodied in well-thought-out proposals.
12. The exploratory work done in connexion with nonintervention has in our opinion particular value, given the gap that exists on this subject in the Charter. My delegation is convinced that some of the proposals submitted to the Special Committee on the principle of non-intervention will be of incalculable value in the General Assembly's discussions on this very important matter. Among these proposals is that suggested by Mexico. Both because of the method used in its drafting — the formulation of the principle in general but sufficiently precise terms, and subsequent illustration through the selective use of examples — and because it was prepared with the aid of inter-American documents (since, as is well known, it is in this continent that most progress has been made in the matter), we would make bold to describe it as, technically speaking, one of the most complete proposals ever laid before an international body. We have therefore deemed it useful to lose no time in drawing the Assembly's attention to this document, the full text of which can be found in the report of the Special Committee (A/5746) already referred to,
13. We are firmly convinced that, if the United Nations in 1965 succeeded in embodying in a formal Declaration a text identical with or similar to the proposal in question, it would be making one of the most valuable possible contributions to peaceful coexistence and good-neighbourly relations.
14. The Mexican capital has also very recently been the scene of another international gathering to which I would now refer, albeit very superficially. This was the Preliminary Meeting on the Denuclearization of Latin America, held at Mexico City from 23 to 27 November 1964, whose Final Act, by decision of the Meeting itself, was transmitted to the Secretary-General of the United Nations and has been distributed by him as a document for the present session [A/5824].
15. Accordingly, I shall make no detailed analysis of the resolutions adopted by this meeting. But my delegation consider it relevant to make some brief mention of its main background and to indicate why its results may in our opinion be regarded as a new step forward on the road which the Assembly has repeatedly recommended should be followed in order to prevent the spread or proliferation of nuclear weapons.
16. The origin of the Preliminary Meeting was resolution 1911 (XVIII) on the denuclearization of Latin America, adopted by the General Assembly on 27 November 1963. In this resolution, the Assembly, considering that the Heads of State of five Latin American Republics had issued, on 29 April 1963, a declaration in which, in the name of their peoples and Governments, they had announced that they were prepared to sign a multilateral Latin American agreement whereby their countries would undertake not to manufacture, receive, store or test nuclear weapons or nuclear launching devices, and recognizing "the need to preserve, in Latin America, conditions which will prevent the countries of the region from becoming involved in a dangerous and ruinous nuclear arms race", noted with satisfaction the initiative of the Heads of State and expressed the hope that the States of Latin America would initiate studies "concerning the measures that should be agreed upon with a view to achieving the aims of the said declaration".
17. With the object of helping to realize the hope expressed by the Assembly, the Mexican Government invited all the other Latin American Republics which had voted in favour of resolution 1911 (XVHI) to participate in the Preliminary Meeting to which I have referred. At the meeting, six resolutions were adopted, whose full text can be found in document A/ 5824. I will merely note here that, as a result of resolution II in the Final Act, a Preparatory Commission for the Denuclearization of Latin America was created.
18. This Preparatory Commission will have its headquarters at Mexico City and will begin work on 15 March 1965. Its main task will be to prepare "a preliminary draft of a multilateral treaty for the denuclearization of Latin America" and, to this end, to carry out the preparatory studies and measures which it considers necessary. In this connexion the Meeting recommended the Commission to give priority to a series of matters, including: the definition of the geographical boundaries of the area to which the treaty should apply; the methods of verification, inspection and control that should be adopted to ensure the faithful fulfilment of the obligations contracted under the treaty; and the initiation of action designed to obtain from the nuclear Powers a commitment to the effect that they would strictly respect the legal instrument on the denuclearization of Latin America in regard to all its aspects and consequences.
19. By a happy coincidence, resolution II to which I have just referred was adopted on the same date as that of the adoption by this Assembly, a year previously, of resolution 1911 (XVIII). We are convinced that the Latin American Republics could have done nothing more appropriate to commemorate such a happy anniversary than to establish, as they recently did at Mexico City, suitable international machinery for the preparation, in due time, of a multilateral treaty providing for the denuclearization of Latin America.
20. General and complete disarmament — of which regional denuclearization is really only one of the so-called "collateral measures" — undoubtedly continues to be one of the most important elements in the noble undertaking which mankind has entrusted to the United Nations. This objective — we make no secret of the fact — is extremely difficult to achieve, but its achievement is essential, because the peace of the world cannot rest upon the balance of terror indefinitely. On no grounds, therefore, could the Mexican delegation ignore this item, particularly since our participation in the work of the disarmament bodies is unstinted and well known to all.
21. Mexico has always regarded its membership of the Eighteen-Nation Committee on Disarmament as a special honour, inevitably involving it in responsibility. In this forum and up to the most recent meetings, held at Geneva between June and September 1964, the voice of the Mexican representative has been continually heard, both on the general subject of disarmament and on the various collateral measures designed to contribute to disarmament whether what was involved was the checking of the arms race by some means or at least, if nothing else was possible, the relaxation of international tension.
22. Our action on all these facets of the complex problem of disarmament has been guided, in a spirit of realism and moderation, by the basic consideration that, since Mexico is a non-nuclear Power which takes pride in the independence of its foreign policy, our function should essentially be that of moderator between the great nuclear Powers. Our invariable principle and the basis for our action have been that all differences can be resolved when the fundamental prerequisite of goodwill is present and that reflection, wisdom and temperance are still decisive factors in international affairs.
23. We are convinced that at no juncture should we take up an extreme position. Rather should we confine ourselves to inviting each of the parties to listen with respect and give due consideration to the arguments of the other — both with regard to the need, for example, to initiate with all possible speed the effective implementation of a disarmament programme, and simultaneously to the other no less obvious need of not compromising security during the various stages through which the process of general and complete disarmament must pass.
24. However unfruitful efforts may so far have been, in face of direct contemplation of the facts, to meet these requirements in equal measure, we are sure that they will have to be adjusted to each other in the future; we shall then see, with all the advantages of hindsight, how far from vain was the appeal for agreement made, at the critical moment, by States which have a long, noble and at times painful history of devotion to and love of peace.
25. We do, however, take sides on one issue — and this, one might say, is the only case in which we are aligned, the only case in which we are, in legal terminology, an interested party: we are on the side of peace and humanity, and against the negative forces of death and barbarism. For this reason, in accordance with General Assembly resolution 1909 (XVIII), we have repeated at Geneva our hope (which is also, as we see it, the hope of mankind) that at the appropriate time an international agreement may be signed under which there would be absolute prohibition of the use of nuclear and thermonuclear weapons. We have made it quite clear that the idea of convening a special conference with this end in view does not seem, to us, a practical one unless the great nuclear Powers agree to attend such a conference, since we are interested not in propaganda tactics but in effective results; with this reservation, however, it has appeared and still appears to us that we should continue to strive for the international outlawing, one day, of the use of these blindly destructive weapons, which inevitably involve mass extermination and complete lack of discrimination between the guilty and the innocent.
26. Last, but certainly not least, I should like to refer to the joint memorandum submitted by eight States (among them Mexico), which in my delegation's opinion constitutes an important contribution within the Eighteen-Nation Committee on Disarmament. It appears among the annexes to that Committee's report to the Assembly, and in it the signatories "urge the nuclear Powers to take all immediate steps towards an agreement to ban all nuclear weapon tests and to discontinue all such tests".
27. However true it may be that the Treaty banning nuclear weapon tests in the three elements with which we are all familiar has been the most important "collateral measure" of disarmament so far taken, it is equally true that, in accordance with its preamble, it must be extended so as to ban nuclear tests in every conceivable element. The difficulties in identifying or distinguishing between natural seismic movements and underground explosions must be overcome through progress in science and technology, combined, if necessary, with some form of on-the-spot inspection which would be acceptable to all.
28. With unflagging hope, therefore, and despite the meagreness of the results achieved at the most recent meetings, Mexico will continue to collaborate wholeheartedly in the work of the Committee on Disarmament, since we are convinced that to accept defeat in this field would be tantamount to accepting the possibility of universal extermination.
29. I should like to say a few words about the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development, which was undoubtedly the most important event of recent years in the field of international trade relations.
30. As we know, the Conference met at Geneva for almost three months, from 23 March to 15 June 1964, with 120 States participating. It was convened, in the words of its Final Act, "... in order to provide, by means of international co-operation, appropriate solutions to the problems of world trade in the interest of all peoples and particularly to the urgent trade and development problems of the developing countries".
31. I shall venture to mention some of what my delegation regards as the most outstanding results of this Conference, which we hope is destined to mark the beginning of a new advance, of deep and historic significance, towards reducing the shattering inequality that exists between the industrialized and the developing countries.
32. In the first place — although this was an incidental effect of the lengthy preparatory work for the Conference — it seems to us that mention should be made of the joint relationship which gradually but spontaneously took shape between the developing countries with a view to their exerting, through co-ordinated action, more effective influence in the matter of formulating and implementing a new policy of international economic co-operation. This joint relationship was officially expressed in the Joint Declaration of the Developing Countries, which appears as an annex to General Assembly resolution 1897 (XVIII) of 11 November 1963. It has already acquired sufficient force to ensure that it will persist in the body originally known as the "group of seventy-five countries", and in the future it will certainly constitute a valuable means of defending the legitimate interests of all the developing countries.
33. Secondly, we should stress the recognition, by the Conference, that removal of the obstacles to an increase in the real income of the developing countries requires complete revision and a thorough transformation of the traditional systems under which international operations in the fields of trade, finance and assistance have been carried out. Guided by this conviction, the Conference adopted a series of General Principles and many practical recommendations.
34. To illustrate the importance of those principles, I think it is worth recalling the texts of the first four of the fifteen principles adopted by the Conference. General Principle One states: "Economic relations between countries, including trade relations, shall be based on respect for the principle of sovereign equality of States, self-determination of peoples, and non-interference in the internal affairs of other countries," General Principle Two provides that: "There shall be no discrimination on the basis of differences in socio-economic systems. Adaptation of trading methods shall be consistent with this principle." General Principle Three says: "Every country has the sovereign right freely to trade with other countries, and freely to dispose of its natural resources in the interest of the economic development and well-being of its own people." Finally, General Principle Four runs as follows: "Economic development and social progress should be the common concern of the whole international community and should, by increasing economic prosperity and well-being, help strengthen peaceful relations and co-operation among nations. Accordingly, all countries pledge themselves to pursue internal and external economic policies designed to accelerate economic growth throughout the world, and in particular to help promote, in developing countries, a rate of growth consistent with the need to bring about a substantial and steady increase in average income, in order to narrow the gap between the standard of living in developing countries and that in the developed countries."
35. With regard to the recommendations, special mention should be made of those for the stimulation of a dynamic and steady growth in the real export earnings of developing countries, both through international commodity arrangements and liberalization of commodity access to markets, and through the adoption of a programme of preferences in favour of developing countries, which would considerably increase their share of international trade in manufactured or semi-manufactured products. The recommendations indicating the reforms in national domestic structures that can best promote economic development should also be noted.
36. Of course, if the results of the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development are to be reflected in benefits corresponding to the urgent needs of the developing countries, it will be necessary for the General Principles adopted by the Conference to become a permanent rule of conduct for all States, and for the recommendations to be faithfully implemented. We nevertheless trust that the industrialized countries will be persuaded, as the developing countries already are, of the urgent need for both the principles and the recommendations to take full effect in the immediate future.
37. We believe that one of the greatest advantages stemming from the interest aroused by the work and conclusions of the Conference was a better understanding, in managerial circles in the industrialized countries, of the adverse conditions which act as so pernicious a brake on the progress of the developing countries—for example, the strangulation of their economies, due in large part to the present features of international trade. It therefore seems to us that it would be most desirable, with a view to spreading knowledge of these facts as widely as possible, for maximum publicity to be given to the Final Act of the Conference in the industrial countries.
38. Lastly, although it may appear obvious, we do not think it superfluous to emphasize once more the paramount importance of prompt approval, by the Assembly, of the Conference's recommendation that it be established as an organ of the Assembly itself and that a permanent organ of the Conference — the Trade and Development Board — be set up.
39. I need hardly add that Mexico will continue to contribute, as it has in the past contributed, to this common effort in international co-operation, both by expediting the execution of its own development plans and by collaborating whole-heartedly in the work of all the competent bodies and organizations.
40. For reasons which I am sure we all deplore, the Organization has for some time been faced with serious problems deriving from the financing of the so-called "peace-keeping operations". In the Working Group of twenty-one members, my delegation has endeavoured, with persistence and without discouragement, to help to the best of its ability in the search for a solution that would be generally acceptable.
41. We are glad to note the apparent probability that such a solution will be found in the near future. We hope that this will come about, since a split would be so fraught with danger to the very existence of the United Nations as to be totally inconceivable, particularly on the threshold of the year 1965, which is the twentieth anniversary of the United Nations and when it will be imperative for all Member States to show, by deeds, that our decision to designate 1965 "International Co-operation Year" is not an empty one.