97. The Laotian delegation is sincerely gratified by the election of Mr, Amintore Fanfani as President of the Assembly and expresses its heartfelt congratulations to him. These congratulations are all the more sincere because the Laotian people has not forgotten the active part played by Italy in the Security Council when a serious crisis precipitated from the outside convulsed my country during the summer of 1959. Thanks to quick acting by the fact-finding and investigation Sub-Committee set up by the Security Council [resolution 132 (1959)], on which Italy, as well as Japan, Tunisia and Argentina, was represented, our neighbours' dreams of domination were thwarted.
98. The problems which are to be considered this year are extremely important, in view of the international situation; they have so many dangerous implications that the role of President of the Assembly at this twentieth session is unusually difficult and his responsibilities are unusually heavy. But the Assembly has made its choice and expressed its confidence. Our delegation sees no need for further compliments in view of this remarkable demonstration of the confidence and esteem of 117 nations.
99. I must not fail to mention in this connexion the truly outstanding service given, in the face of great difficulties, by the President of the Assembly of the nineteenth session, and the tact, diplomacy and courage with which he performed his duties during the past year.
100. We are also happy to welcome the coming of three new Members, Singapore, the Maldive Islands and the Gambia, to this Assembly, which is growing year by year — a healthy sign and a necessary reminder of the universality of this institution.
101. I have said that the problems to be considered this year are extremely important and have very dangerous implications for the world. This is the profound conviction of our delegation and also, it seems, that of other Members of the United Nations. Never, since the Second World War, has the world been so close to another catastrophe. Part of Asia is already ablaze. There is talk of "escalation". Frontier incidents are occurring everywhere. Ultimatums are issued with brutal suddenness. Immense forces of destruction are being held in readiness, causing incredible damage in countries barely liberated from colonial or feudal subjection, countries whose poverty-stricken people need bread rather than cannons. Colonialism is desperately, and sometimes ferociously, fighting to maintain its privileges. Racial segregation has led to an explosion of despair and hate. The old imperialisms and the new, more treacherous and quite as dangerous, manifest themselves brazenly. Our country, itself ravaged by war, subversion and foreign interference, sees with great distress the growing threat of a general explosion, which would mean the destruction of us all. Never has peace been so uncertain, and it is unfortunately in Asia, between neighbouring and all too often sister nations, that the fiercest and most deadly battles are fought.
102. To what are we to attribute this deplorable and heart-rending situation and why cannot the basic problems, the fundamental causes of tension and conflict be settled in accordance with the principles of the Charter which we have all accepted, or in accordance with the spirit and principles of the 1955 Bandung Conference, since, after all, some nations represented here took an active part in the framing of these resolutions which, at the time — and it was such a short time ago — aroused justifiable hopes in the Asian and African countries?
103. We in our delegation believe, and what is happening in our country indisputably proves, that the present state of tension and instability arises primarily and essentially from the fact that many countries have not yet fully accepted the principles on which we have endeavoured to base rules for peaceful international relations. We find that national interests, ideological interests, questions of domination and prestige outweigh, particularly for certain Powers, any consideration of international co-operation.
104. We apologize for speaking so frankly but, within these precincts, there should be no hiding of facts at the cost of international friendship and the safeguarding of world peace. Otherwise the basic problems continue unabated and, because they are camouflaged, or approached indirectly, or attenuated by temporary Compromises, they eventually explode and plunge the world into fear and anguish, as recent events show. The obvious fact is that, for certain nations which possess real influence and power — the power that springs, according to a famous saying, from the cannon's mouth—national self-interest is still the chief criterion, the golden rule of politics. The interests of other nations come far behind. They are flouted, if not crushed, as ours, for example, have been.
105. It is perhaps time all these policies of direct or indirect domination were re-examined and the dreams of hegemony discarded. We in Laos have fought against imperialism and do not want imperialism in any other guise, even if it promises heaven on earth. What we want is respect of our liberty, our sovereignty, our frontiers and our system of government. We ask to be left in peace to work, as we please, at "liberating" ourselves. We need no lessons from anyone to understand the lessons of history and to meditate on its inexorable advance. We demand the full, honest and sincere application, by all signatories, of the 1962 Agreements which guaranteed — the word has its grim humour — our neutrality.
106. What do we see instead of a sincere and honest guarantee? For nearly twenty years, foreign battalions have been using our country as a base to help the rebels — who are acting on their own behalf and not on behalf of the Laotian people — to sow ruin and misery in a country whose traditional peacefulness and tolerance are known to everyone. Not content with intervening in strength in our country, these foreign troops use our territory to carry the seeds of subversion and violence elsewhere.
107. Despite this, we have laboured to achieve national concord and have made many diplomatic and other concessions without receiving anything in return, so that Laos has remained a war-torn country for almost a generation. We can hardly hope for an improvement in the situation when all our concessions have met with nothing but evasion and rejection and when those who are giving military support to the Laotian rebels are carrying on another war on our doorstep and, in that case also, refusing to make any concessions or to sit down at the negotiating table in order to settle the entire problem. Nevertheless, we are still prepared to welcome with open arms every Laotian, without distinction of opinion or origin, into the national community.
108. Unfortunately, since the signing of the Agreements on the neutrality of Laos at Geneva in 1962 we have had from the Pathet Lao no sign of conciliation or co-operation which might enable us to start our country on the way towards bringing our national institutions back to normality and re-establishing peace. The machinery set up under those Agreements is being blocked by constant and deliberate obstruction on the part of our opponents. The International Commission for Supervision and Control, composed of the representatives of India, Canada and Poland, has been treated with mistrust and hostility by our opponents and has not been able to carry out its peace mission properly. Everything is unsettled, even the fate of our country.
109. We therefore believe that this twentieth session of the General Assembly must make an honest evaluation and adopt resolutions with a firm intent to implement them, and not allow most of the great international problems to become more acute and more dangerous from year to year. This does not, of course, mean that these problems are to be settled without taking national interests into account, and we have no desire to build a world in the abstract. For States, as for individuals, earthly needs must be taken into account. All of us must, however, bear in mind that the United Nations Charter provides for the universality of the political world. If we do not take this into account, none of the fundamental problems — general disarmament, non-proliferation of thermonuclear weapons, colonialism, neo-colonialism, racial segregation, the rights of peoples, political freedom can be solved and we shall soon revert to the rule of force, if, indeed, that has not already happened. We believe that the example should be given by those who occupy a dominant position in the world and whose voice is powerful and decisive. For mankind, this is a time, not for the rivalries of Powers, but for cooperation and mutual aid. Many countries represented in the Assembly have a past history of glory and renown. What good would it do them to gather a few more laurels at the expense of peace?
110. The delegation of Laos naturally reserves the right to explain its position on the items of the agenda in greater detail as they are taken up. We shall speak again of our problems, of the war which is being forced on us and the foreign interference which feeds and perpetuates it; we shall have more to say about the new imperialisms which are trying to subjugate us. We shall, however, speak of them without losing sight of the fact that the General Assembly must be an assembly of "united" nations and we shall never cease from insisting that the Charter, its spirit and its provisions, be respected.
111. Our sole intention today has been to make an urgent appeal called for by the world situation and in the interests of the future: let us spare our admirable institution a crisis of incalculable magnitude. No one here is unaware that there has been talk of a paralysis of the United Nations. Some countries have even thought of replacing it by another organization whose members would be the dissatisfied nations, the forces called "progressive" or "emerging". We refuse to consider this possibility, so monstrous does it seem to us; it would mean dividing the world into two opposing camps, creating further occasions for crises and multiplying the risks of a world war. We must not, however, treat this threat lightly. We do not wish to see our Organization afflicted by paralysis or be passive witnesses to its death-throes. We must, on the contrary, take it into account, in order to save world peace, overcoming our national and ideological selfishness, and must review all unresolved problems in a spirit of co-operation and friendship. This will strengthen the United Nations and the moral principles it represents will acquire greater force and weight. For we believe that it ought to be the world's conscience; that is why we apply, in settling problems, a moral standard and not selfish interests.
112. In this connexion, the cease-fire agreed upon by India and Pakistan is a major success for the United Nations and a personal triumph for Secretary-General U Thant, to whom we wish to pay a resounding tribute for the decisive role he has played in this difficult matter. In the same spirit, I should like officially to express to him my.country's sincere gratitude for the remarkable work of the Committee for the development of the Lower Mekong Basin, It is for this reason also that we believe that this Organization should not exclude any State or nation, since human solidarity seems the more necessary and urgent the more it is threatened.
113. May this twentieth session which has for the first time heard the highest religious authority of Christendom make an appeal that was nobility and reason itself, be one of co-operation, mutual assistance and solidarity, and one during which we shall come to an understanding in order to create a peaceful, friendly and better world. As a Buddhist, I sincerely hope that his message of peace may be heard and meditated upon by all those responsible for the destinies of the world.