1. Permit me first of all, on behalf of my Government and the Salvadorian delegation as well as on my own behalf, to congratulate the President on having been elected to preside over our deliberations at this session and on the extraordinary support which the General Assembly has given him, as manifested not only by its almost unanimous vote but also by the expression of personal regard for him voiced by the speakers who have preceded me, expressions with Which we sincerely associate ourselves in well-deserved recognition of his outstanding merits as an intellectual and statesman and as an illustrious spokesman for the noble people of Italy.
2. Together with my cordial congratulations I offer the President, on behalf of my delegation, our constant and resolute co-operation, knowing that he will guide the complex work of this session with the utmost skill. He may be sure that we share his concern at this difficult period of the history of mankind and that we are fully alive to the responsibility which all of us must assume if we wish to overcome the difficulties obstructing the fulfilment of the purposes of the United Nations.
3. El Salvador is also happy on this occasion to welcome the three countries which have become members of our great family of nations, the sovereign States of Gambia, the Maldive Islands and Singapore. I take pleasure in extending to them our warmest congratulations, expressing our sincere hope for their growing prosperity and offering them the sincere friendship of the Salvadorian people and Government.
4. El Salvador comes to this session of the General Assembly imbued with the same spirit of understanding and international co-operation which has characterized its participation in all earlier sessions.
5. We are mindful of the fact that we are commemorating the twentieth anniversary of the founding of the United Nations, which obliges us all to pause and take stock of the road we have travelled, the experiences we have had, the tasks we have carried out and those which remain to be completed, and the inevitable frustrations which we have sometimes had to endure.
6. This is a propitious occasion for reaffirming our unwavering adherence to the Charter of the United Nations, whose principles are also incorporated, at the national level, in the Constitution of El Salvador, which is entirely based on unity, friendship and democracy and the most uncompromising respect for the rights, dignity and freedom of the human person.
7. As Americans we must at the same time reaffirm our allegiance to the Charter of the Organization of American States, whose objectives and ideals, moreover, fully coincide with those of the world Organization. Let me also express El Salvador's loyalty to the principles of the Charter of the Organization of Central American States, which was established for the purpose of promoting the economic, social and political integration of the peoples of Central America.
8. Respecting as it does the equality and sovereignly of all States, without which there can be no International coexistence, El Salvador wishes to reiterate here, as it has done on numerous occasions, its dedication to the principle of non-intervention and to the right of peoples to self-determination without foreign interference. Consequently, my country condemns all aggression and interference of any kind, including ideological aggression and interference which propagate doctrines contrary to our democratic tradition, We likewise reiterate our opposition to all forms of colonialism, noting with regret that there still exist colonial territories in the very heart of our continent which are an affront to the American States.
9. With regard to the Central American territory of Belize, we maintain our close support of the legitimate claims of our sister republic, Guatemala, and we were very happy to hear the Guatemalan Minister for Foreign Affairs announce that a solution of that long-standing dispute with the United Kingdom is being sought through the good offices of a friendly State.
10. I should now like to refer very briefly to certain aspects of the world situation in which the current session of the General Assembly is taking place. Among them there are, to be sure, some which could well give rise to pessimism but these very aspects should, on the contrary, inspire us to make new and more vigorous efforts and imbue us with a greater sense of responsibility if we really wish to contribute to the peace and prosperity of all the peoples of the earth.
11. There is no concealing the fact that the main causes of uncertainty and anxiety in the world still remain. The ever-present possibility of a frightful nuclear war which, if it broke out, would destroy the modern civilization which has been developed over the centuries with so much painstaking effort; the ominous spectre of hunger which hovers over enormous masses of human beings, as the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations has told us with such painful frankness; the exacerbation of racial conflicts and the growth of extreme nationalisms, stirred up by selfish interests which refuse to recognize that the peace of the world is indivisible; sporadic outbreaks of local warfare which could easily degenerate into world conflagrations; the political, social and economic consequences of the cold war and the armaments race, which was profoundly disturbing to all peoples and prevent them from using their natural resources and the advances of technology and science for their own benefit and in the service of the peace and well-being of mankind — these are the disquieting problems to which we must find an adequate and satisfactory solution, in accordance with the high principles and aims of the United Nations.
12. In view of the grave threats to peace and of the international conflicts which have recently arisen, it becomes more urgently necessary than ever to concentrate on the problems of world disarmament and of prohibiting the use of nuclear and thermonuclear weapons, putting an end to the testing of such weapons once and for all and achieving the maximum international co-operation to guarantee that outer space is used for exclusively peaceful ends, without losing sight of the desire of the peoples expressed in the Declaration on the conversion to peaceful needs of the resources released by disarmament [resolution 1837 (XVII)].
13. It was a severe shock to us that in the same month in which this twentieth session opened a bloody conflict broke out between India and Pakistan. The peoples devoted to peace and harmony were solidly behind the Secretary-General when he made his recent journey to urge a cease-fire in the Kashmir area and they have followed with the greatest interest the deliberations and efforts of the Security Council to terminate the hostilities in the affected territory as quickly as possible.
14. It was with a real sense of relief that the world received the news that both India and Pakistan had agreed to comply with Security Council resolution 211 (1965) of 20 September 1965, which calls upon both sides to cease their hostilities immediately. El Salvador, which hoped as did all mankind for an understanding between India and Pakistan, now offers its congratulations to both nations and their respective Governments, to the Security Council and to the Secretary-General of the United Nations, while at the same time expressing its most earnest wish for a final settlement of the differences and problems which led to the conflict.
15. The fact that the General Assembly has been able to meet this year without having to face the obstacles which prevented it from functioning last year is encouragement for all those who are cowed by the difficulties before us.
16. Even though the Special Committee on Peacekeeping Operations has not yet been able to solve all the problems referred to it by the General Assembly at its nineteenth session, it nevertheless deserves our gratitude for having secured unanimous approval of the agreement which permits us to work normally today on the problems of peace which brook no delay.
17. It is with particular satisfaction that I wish to refer to a meaningful event which fills us with great hopes: the forthcoming visit of His Holiness Pope Paul VI to the United Nations. The Pontiffs of the Roman Catholic Church have always striven to promote peace everywhere in the world and to further tranquillity, harmony and order based on universal justice and brotherhood. Even at the most critical moments of history and in the hours of greatest anguish the voice of the Popes has been a powerful force in arousing new hopes and inspiring confident optimism in all matters affecting the destiny of mankind. My delegation has the greatest satisfaction in extending in advance its most respectful and heartfelt welcome to His Holiness Pope Paul VI, in the certainty that his wise message will be inspired by the highest interests of mankind. El Salvador, whose people are traditionally Catholic, takes this opportunity to reiterate its continuing devotion to the spiritual and religious values represented by the august person of the Sovereign Pontiff.
18. As far as the highly complex problems which the developing countries are trying to solve are concerned, the delegation of El Salvador wishes to express its gratitude for the valuable co-operation given to El Salvador by the United Nations through its Expanded Programme of Technical Assistance, through the development of local and regional projects of the Special Fund, and through Central American technical assistance projects.
19. The United Nations Special Fund has given El Salvador its valuable co-operation in the form of technical personnel, equipment and services for the exploration of the ground water resources of one of our country's most important agricultural areas: the valley of the Río Grande de San Miguel. As a result of this study, a project for irrigating a very considerably larger area, thus greatly increasing the productive capacity of the valley, is in course of execution. In addition, the Government of El Salvador has just signed two agreements with the United Nations Special Fund for co-operation in investigating the country's geothermal resources and exploring the ground water resources of the San Salvador metropolitan area. Negotiations with the Special Fund regarding the execution of a study of our mineral resources are also under way. The regional projects cover industrial research and technology, telecommunications, agricultural sciences, the development of the fishing industry and the campaign for the eradication of the Mediterranean fruit fly.
20. There can be no doubt that the international cooperation made available to my country by the United Nations and its specialized agencies is highly productive, and, moreover, it has increased continually since 1951, when the first relevant agreements between the United Nations and the Government of El Salvador were signed.
21. It is worth noting, too, that the Central American Economic Integration Programme is the result of the effective co-operation organized by the United Nations Economic Commission for Latin America, which set up a regional Committee of Ministers of Economic Affairs and Public Works.
22. My distinguished colleague Mr. Herrarte, the representative of Guatemala, has already told the General Assembly in his brilliant statement (1340th meeting) of the measures which the Central American republics have adopted to rebuild their original unity as a single community of nations.
23. Although social and political unity is the primary objective of the whole Central American integration movement, priority continues to be given in practice to the promotion of everything concerned with the immediate economic integration of the region. As far as this highly important phase of the process of integration is concerned, I am gratified to be able to announce that the Central American Common Market is already a going concern which is scoring indisputable successes in its own specific field and mustering the increasingly enthusiastic and effective co-operation of its members.
24. Still on the subject of the efforts being made by my country to speed up its development, we would like to reiterate our firm dedication to the principles of the Alliance for Progress. El Salvador has always been and will continue to be an enthusiastic and steadfast follower of these principles, not only because the Alliance constitutes a collective undertaking to promote economic change and progress, but also, and primarily, because it is designed to bring about a radical improvement in the living conditions of our people.
25. In the same connexion, El Salvador intends to help in every possible way to accelerate, intensify and extend United Nations activities aimed at furthering over-all development for the prime purpose of eliminating the poverty in which vast numbers of mankind live. As the distinguished representative of Brazil, Mr. Leitâo da Cunha, pointed out [1334th meeting], the poor countries continue to become poorer every day, while the economy of the privileged sector of the world prospers.
26. There is a pressing need for the economically more favoured countries to awake to their heavy responsibilities and redouble their efforts to cooperate more actively with nations which are experiencing difficulty in promoting and intensifying their own development process.
27. Since the United Nations already recognize that the disparity between countries in the economic and social sectors is growing rather than diminishing, as is so explicitly stated in the joint declaration of the seventy-seven developing countries made at the conclusion of the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development, El Salvador is confident that all countries will fully and whole-heartedly endorse the need to strengthen and galvanize the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development and give it effective help in achieving its objectives.
28. El Salvador, as a country whose main source of income is primary exports, is interested in obtaining for its exports on world markets fair prices which represent adequate and equitable remuneration for the labour of those who produce them.
29. I cannot conclude this brief statement without expressing, as is my duty, the gratitude of the Government and people of El Salvador for the aid and demonstrations of human solidarity given to us in a spirit of brotherhood by many friendly nations on the occasion of the earthquake of 3 May this year, which caused much damage to the city of San Salvador and surrounding communities and as well as taking its toll of victims also left several thousand inhabitants homeless. El Salvador expresses its undying gratitude to all these noble countries, their distinguished Governments and their generous peoples, who are so worthily represented in this Assembly.