68. Mr. President, it is a great pleasure for me personally to extend to you the cordial congratulations of the Danish Government and the Danish delegation on your election to the high post of President of this Assembly. I have had the privilege of knowing you for a long time as an experienced and able statesman, and I have always appreciated the spirit of co-operation and understanding you have shown in the matters we have had to deal with. Your outstanding qualifications are well known to all, and we are gratified that the Continent to which I belong should be represented in the Chair of this Assembly by a person of your distinction, We feel sure, Mr. President, that under your wise guidance this General Assembly will proceed steadfastly towards the goal of solving the many problems confronting our Organization.
69. At the start of the twentieth session of the General Assembly we have behind, us a severe crisis which it was possible for us to overcome, thanks not least to the conciliatory attitude of the United States. But, serious though the crisis was, it has widened our experience in one important respect. It has made it clear to us that because of idealistic ideas of what this world Organization should be, we had entrusted the new Organization with task that were too heavy for it and outside the realm of what was politically feasible in our still far from ideal world community. The Organization has, literally speaking, come down to political reality and, taught by experience, we should now proceed cautiously and devote our combined efforts to invigorating our Organization. In step with creating a wholesome political climate in relations between nations, we must develop our Organization to make it capable of accomplishing what the founders had in mind when they established the United Nations twenty years ago: maintaining international peace and security and creating better economic and social conditions for all nations and all peoples.
70. To Denmark — and I think the same applies to all the smaller nations — peace-keeping is the central function of the United Nations. It is therefore, in our opinion, one of the most essential tasks confronting the twentieth session to initiate a study of all the complex problems attending the principle of peace-keeping functions, Denmark has greeted with satisfaction the initiatives to this end that have already been taken by various Members. To enable our Organization to recover from the crisis it will be urgently necessary to solve its acute financial problem. Several countries have already contributed to this end, We feel that it is necessary for all Members of the Organization to prove their willingness to give our twenty-year-old Organization a fresh start by making similar contributions, within their means and to the best of their ability.
71. A fundamental weakness of the United Nations is that it has not, during the first twenty years of its life, been universal in its membership. The present grave situation in Asia makes it necessary to repeat the well-known and constant opinion of the Danish Government that China, one of the permanent members of the Security Council, can be represented only by the Government which has actual authority over Chinese territory. How can the United Nations be expected to take an effective part in finding a, solution to the Viet-Namese problem as long as Peking has not taken its proper seat here? And how can the United Nations be the most important forum for furthering disarmament, an area in which the nuclear Powers have a special responsibility and must play a major role, if one of the nuclear Powers is not represented here?
72. To make it possible for us to work on our big common problems — the maintenance of peace and the creation of better economic and social conditions for all the nations of the world — our immediate task must be to seek speedy and peaceful solutions in the most serious trouble spots. We regard the cease-fire in Kashmir as an important achievement, but the cease-fire does not in itself offer any solution to the problem. The United Nations has brought its unified strength to bear on the parties to the conflict, but must now also live up to its responsibility by helping to bring about a lasting political solution.
73. The tragic developments in Viet-Nam bring death and suffering to millions of people, but they also represent an obstacle to creating the atmosphere which is necessary to secure progress in our big common tasks. The Danish Government is of the opinion that a solution cannot be found by military means. Nor does a solution lie in unilateral United States withdrawal, which would only threaten to bring Viet-Nam and the whole, of South-East Asia under the political and military domination of another great Power. A lasting solution satisfactory to the local population can be found only through negotiations without any conditions being laid down in advance and with their starting point being the Geneva Agreements of 1954. It is essential that all interested parties, including the Viet-Cong, should participate in such negotiations. Although the political problems underlying the war in Viet-Nam and the India-Pakistan conflict are different in various essential respects, I think that the two-stage procedure envisaged in the Indo-Pakistani conflict — first, cease-fire and then negotiations — could in due course serve as a model in Viet-Nam.
74. The United Nations is directly involved in the Cyprus question. United Nations forces have been maintained there for a long time. At this session it should be our task to assist the parties in achieving a negotiated settlement of the political issues. Much bloodshed has been avoided through the United Nations presence, and we must be careful at this session not to take any action that might tend to aggravate the situation. The basis of our deliberations should be Security Council resolution 186 (1964) of 4 March 1964, if it is felt that the treaties between the parties are obsolete, it is up to the parties to change them. It would be a most dangerous thing for all of us to encourage any unilateral abrogation of these treaties. I think it would be wise if we, at this session, concentrated our efforts on paving the way for a negotiated solution which would enable the peaceful co-existence of the two communities in Cyprus.
75. Generally speaking, the process of decolonization which we have witnessed must be said to have been a success of immense importance to the peoples of the world. Every year we have been able to welcome new Members to our Organization. While rejoicing in their liberation, we view with growing concern the fateful developments in the southern part of the African Continent. The United Nations allow developments to continue which are contrary to all the basic ideals of our Organization, which mean constant suffering and oppression of our fellow-beings and which, if continued, would present a direct danger to the future existence of our entire world community.
76. Therefore, it must be a main preoccupation of the present session to promote solutions to the remaining decolonization problems in Africa and to the apartheid problem. The Danish Government agrees, now as before, that it seems necessary to bring increasing pressure to bear on a Government whose attitude appears completely unaffected by world opinion and seems today to be more obstinate and unreasonable than ever. Our reservations on such a line of increased pressure are two fold. First, under the Charter, it is exclusively for the Security Council to adopt coercive measures. Resolutions to that effect adopted by the Assembly have no legal validity and could be dangerous to our Organization as a whole. Secondly, any legally adopted measures must be effective. Here again the solidarity of Member States is at stake. As I said before, we must proceed cautiously during this session and take upon ourselves only such tasks as are within the range of what is politically feasible. But, having said that, I wish to confirm that in logical consequence of the policy pursued by Denmark in the Committee of Twenty-Four, the Danish Government will stand firmly behind any legally adopted effective measure, and the Danish people is willing to make such sacrifices as may be necessary to bring about a solution to these problems.
77. I have spoken about some of the present specific problems impeding the creation of that peaceful international atmosphere which is a precondition to achieving our wider goals. However, we must also at this session continue our work on the more general questions. Among these I shall mention only two: disarmament and economic co-operation, especially with a view to the interests of the developing countries.
78. In the field of disarmament, it is realistic to admit that the key to real progress lies in the hands of the big Powers. But we, the smaller countries, to whom collective security is fundamental, must incessantly underline the urgency of the problem. If general and complete disarmament is a distant aim today, we must press on with the more limited collateral measures. We feel that the last session of the Eighteen-Nation Committee in Geneva was useful in this respect, and we consider it both necessary and possible to reach limited results in some of the fields on which the discussions at Geneva were focused.
79. We have now before us both a United States and a USSR [A/5976] proposal for a treaty on nonproliferation of nuclear weapons. At this session we should strongly urge the Eighteen-Nation Committee to reach an agreement, taking both of those interesting proposals into consideration. In the meantime it should be possible, as a preliminary measure, to reach agreement on more limited steps such as the moratorium on proliferation proposed by the Italian delegation at Geneva. As we see it, the Italian proposal has many merits, and we support it, not least because any step, however small, will be conducive to creating a political atmosphere that may make further steps possible. However, the Italian proposal could perhaps be said to be somewhat unbalanced Inasmuch as it suggests that the nonnuclear Powers undertake important obligations without demanding corresponding commitments on the part of the nuclear Powers. We feel that the possibility of a more balanced arrangement should be studied. We imagine that this could be achieved by combining the Italian proposal and certain ideas contained in the proposal of the United Arab Republic for a moratorium on underground tests. In this manner the nuclear and the non-nuclear Powers would be treated in a parallel way for identical periods of time. We fully realize the risks involved in that such an undertaking does not offer full possibilities of verification, but we feel assured that those risks are not comparable to the risks facing us all if no progress whatsoever is achieved in this field.
80. The United Nations Disarmament Commission has adopted a resolution recommending that a world disarmament conference be convened. Denmark voted in favour of that resolution. I wish, however, to emphasize three points which I consider essential to the successful outcome of such a conference.
First, it must he well prepared. Second, the guidelines to be followed in the work on disarmament should be established by a restricted body whose size, in my opinion, should not exceed that of the present Eighteen-Nation Committee, Third, the work must be governed by the principle to which the Foreign Minister of the Soviet Union subscribed in his statement in this Assembly on 24 September [1335th meeting], that disarmament measures must be carried out in such a way that they offer no military advantages to either side.
81. I should like to say a few words about the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development, our newest creation, in which my Government is highly interested.
82. The establishment of the Conference was perhaps the only major achievement of the otherwise not very constructive nineteenth session of the General Assembly. We cannot, in any fairness, expect great concrete results after only one year. The main thing is that the new body is now alive and functioning. The Trade and Development Board has established its programme of work. It is only natural that primary products have been in the foreground.
83. Progress must be made with regard to the efforts of the industrialized countries to remove trade restrictions on imports from developing countries. In the past year we have seen developments towards tariff reductions on tropical products in several countries. My Government, among others, has submitted proposals for such reductions. The question of preferences remains unsolved, and we regret that the latest deliberations in this field are as yet inconclusive. My Government is of the opinion that a general preference arrangement for all developing countries in regard to manufactured goods also should be urgently considered and supplemented by measures to promote production and export.
84. Closely related to those activities is the work of the United Nations Centre for Industrial Development. Appropriate modern methods of production and marketing must be applied as early as possible to the industries of the developing countries. To accomplish this task detailed technical studies and comprehensive practical experience are required. United Nations activities in the field of industrialization must, however, be seen in relation to the United Nations Development Programme and to the corresponding activities of the international financial institutions. Generally speaking, it seems to my Government that, in order to ensure the most effective assistance, there is an urgent and continued need for co-ordinating the different economic activities of the United Nations family. The Charter specifies that one of the Economic and Social Council's main functions is that of coordinating the United Nations activities in the economic and social fields. We must ensure that the Council gets the necessary support to perform this task. The enlargement of its membership is a first step in the right direction. We must streamline the functions of the Economic and Social Council as a principal organ of the United Nations so that it can most effectively continue to co-ordinate the United Nations international assistance programmes during the United Nations Development Decade.
85. The task requires increasing concentration of efforts. Therefore it should not be beyond our reach to minimize the time and work spent on procedural and other alien matters while keeping to the substance: the furtherance of social and economic development throughout the world.
86. Permit me to conclude with some general observations. It remains a primary object of the United Nations to ease world tension and prepare the way for a lasting arrangement of peace, confidence and stability. We know that, as regards direct relations between the major Powers of the world, the United Nations can do very little. We have, however, at least some possibilities of dealing with local conflicts and. by pacifying or solving them, of limiting the danger of increased world tension. In such cases the United Nations can bring the pressure of world opinion to bear on the parties to solve their differences. Unfortunately, we must admit, this approach has far too often proved insufficient. We can place the peace-keeping machinery of the United Nations at the disposal of the parties.
87. I believe that there is broad agreement that it should be our primary aim to strengthen this peace-keeping machinery. Our task should be to make it possible for the United Nations to pin down a conflict immediately it becomes acute and prevent it from developing into open warfare. I think, however, we have all learned that if we wish to strengthen the United Nations, our approach must be in conformity with political realities. Only then can we secure such general support as is necessary for its success. Further, in our endeavours to improve the existing machinery, let us not forget that by extinguishing an acute fire and mounting costly and perhaps long-lived peace-keeping operations, which only freeze the situation, we have sometimes made the conflicting parties and ourselves forget about the political problems underlying the conflict. It is, of course, difficult to lay down any rules that would be applicable to all situations, but it seems to me that one major problem is of general relevance: did the people or peoples directly concerned have any opportunity of deciding for themselves without outside interference? I need not in this Assembly elaborate upon the overriding importance of the principle of self-determination, and I am sure that all will agree with me that if we look at the international conflicts or tensions of today, we very often find that the people or peoples involved are prevented, in one way or another, from exercising their right of self-determination. However, it goes without saying that each case must be treated on its merits. An important aspect of the peace-keeping activity of the United Nations should therefore be mediation with a view to conciliation. In this connexion I think that the British proposal for a study of the function of the United Nations in relation to the peaceful settlement of disputes is highly important and relevant.
88. I know that the road to a better world order is long and narrow. I am also aware that smaller countries should tread softly when laying down the law to others, and, in particular, to major Powers. We do not have their special internal and external problems and responsibilities. But even though the world community of today is dominated by power politics, the smaller countries should not give up the hope of winning respect for such other guiding principles as underlie the structure of their own communities. We must always keep in mind the two main pillars of the Charter. One is what could be called the conservative principle: to maintain peace, which, taken alone, would mean only upholding the status quo, The other is the evolutionary principle; to create better conditions for mankind in an orderly and peaceful manner, thereby eliminating the roots of human suffering, namely war, destruction, and poverty.