YouSaid · the spoken record

Azeredo da Silveira

THE RECORD WRITES THIS SPEAKER AS AZEREDO DA SILVEIRA

lines on the record: 104
first: 1974-09-24
most recent: 1978-09-24
sittings or episodes: 4
sources: un-general-debate

Every line below is reproduced as it was said and linked to the record it came from. Nothing here is summarised or generated. Directory · Search · Corrections

“1. Mr. President, permit me to express to you the satisfaction of the Brazilian delegation at seeing you presiding over this session of the General Assembly. I bring you our congratulations on your unanimous election to this high office. 2. I also wish to express the appreciation of my delegation for the manner in which Ambassador Hamilton Shirley Amerasinghe conducted the work of the thirty-first session. 3. Brazil supports the principle of the universality of the Organization, to the fulfilment of which we draw nearer each passing year. It is, therefore, always a pleasure to mark the admission of new Member States to the United Nations as we now do in the case of Viet Nam and Djibouti. We hope that other peoples that still seek their independence will shortly join us in the common endeavour to promote international peace and security.”
1977-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 32 (1977)
“The Organization should also be assessed on the basis of the trends it impresses upon, and the directions it sets for, the international community. Also, it acts principally through ideas, which historically have constituted a more efficient agent of political change than other forces, such as power, to which homage is so frequently paid.”
1975-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 30 (1975)
“At the end of that period, we shall have made progress on several questions, advanced slowly on others and perhaps achieved nothing on some. The decision-making process in multilateral diplomacy is slow by its very nature and constantly challenges the subtlety and patience of those who practice it. Nevertheless, there is no more effective alternative for the consideration of the problems that are constantly increasing today and that are of interest to a large number of States. 61. We must not succumb to the quantitative temptation of measuring the achievements of the United Nations by using the arithmetic applied to decisions implemented, problems resolved and objectives achieved. Its influence is more subtle and diffused.”
1975-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 30 (1975)
“The admittedly brief period available to the seventh special session to carry out its mandate did not permit an in-depth examination of the proposal then made by Brazil. Nevertheless, I am certain that it will be possible to reflect on its terms during the session that is now beginning. The fact is that we have today, for the first time in the history of international economic negotiations, a real opportunity to begin the task of constructing a new world economic order. For the first time the developed nations and the developing nations are in a position to achieve concrete results, since the negotiating conditions are less unequal than before. 60. We have before us a long general debate and a complex agenda that will demand our best efforts during the coming three months.”
1975-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 30 (1975)
“For the developed nations, it is a matter of recognizing, reciprocally, their right to guarantees of supplies of raw materials under equitable conditions of price and as a counterpart to concessions offered to the developing nations. 58. The negotiation of such a general agreement should not interrupt the understandings arrived at within the scope of the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade, which so far have attended primarily to the needs of the industrialized nations. On the other hand, it would not prejudge the negotiation of specific mechanisms aimed at preserving the purchasing power of the export earnings of nations producing specific raw materials. All these efforts would be complementary if certain general guidelines were accepted by the parties as being capable of governing international co-operation. 59.”
1975-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 30 (1975)
“A general agreement of the type we propose would be the antithesis of all that. It would be structured for the purpose of operational efficiency and would attack the problems of international trade in a direct manner and at the very core. For the developing nations, it is a matter of recognizing their right of access to the markets of developed nations for their export products not only their raw materials, but also, and in a growing manner, for their manufactured goods. It is also a matter of recognizing their right of access to the markets of assets which are indispensable to the development process, be they material or cultural.”
1975-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 30 (1975)
“Digitized by Dag Hammarskjold Library 56. We do not ignore the important role that resolutions adopted in the General Assembly and other forums of the United Nations have played and continue to play in the formation of a universal awareness of the problem of development. In this respect, what is declaratory or re-vindicatory is not irrelevant. We find, then, that many of the ideas presented so far have already matured, especially in the heat of debates and antagonisms. We believe that the time has come to undertake negotiating efforts that will lead to concrete and comprehensive results. We wish to build on what has already been achieved by the alert warnings of the past. We believe that it is time to proceed beyond warnings and appeals, just as we believe that is is too late for palliative or miniaturized solutions. 57.”
1975-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 30 (1975)
“It was in the light of these observations that the delegation of Brazil proposed, during the seventh special session, the negotiation of a general agreement on trade between developed and developing nations, in order to provide a politico-juridical matrix for specific negotiations. Such a general accord would not be a substitute for general agreements in force, nor would it attempt to replace existing forums and mechanisms. But it certainly would be an attempt to bridge the gaps left by these and correct the distortions resulting form a vision centered on the developed nations. 55. On that occasion we stated that we believed the time had come to proceed from declarations of principles and maximalist claims to a negotiation of specific guidelines to govern the economic relations between developed and developing nations.”
1975-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 30 (1975)
“The current crisis in the world economic system differs considerably from that model. This time, the periphery, instead of passively suffering the effects of the crisis, has also engendered pressures of a recessionary nature. The destabilizing potential of the current international division of labor and the risks inherent in the current structure of North-South economic relations were cruelly felt. Today it is no longer possible not to recognize the need to extend to the relations between industrialized and developing nations the structure of guidelines until now limited to the industrialized sector of the world. 54.”
1975-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 30 (1975)
“The main reason for this lack of symmetry was the fact that, until recently, recessions originated at the center of the world economic system, that is, in the industrialized nations, and propagated themselves in the direction of the periphery, that is, towards the developing nations. 52. From this perspective, it was determined that the crises could be overcome by anti-cyclical regulations in the national sphere in the more developed nations, complemented by trade and monetary accords among them. Similarly, according to this reasoning, an objective solidarity of interests existed between the center and the periphery. The latter, being the first to feel the repercussions of a crisis, would benefit from a renewed expansion of interchange among the industrialized nations. 53.”
1975-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 30 (1975)
“If these premises are observed, I believe that a revision is politically feasible, as is evident from the progress already achieved with the approval of amendments to Articles 23,27 and 61 of the Charter, which came into force in 1965. 51. During the seventh special session [2327th meeting], I had the opportunity to express the position of Brazil concerning the present state and future perspectives of international economic relations. Whereas a reasonably efficient structure of guidelines prevails in economic relations among industrialized nations, a virtual laissez-faire prevails in the relations between developed and developing nations.”
1975-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 30 (1975)
“We should moderate the former and dissipate the latter through an objective effort to identify those Articles that really should be amended. Above all, we should avoid overambitious plans for an ideal revision, which the Charter does not need, in favor of a pragmatic reform that transforms it in the light of what the experience of 30 years has taught us. We should bring together the results of different efforts dispersed among various organs, such as the Ad Hoc Committee on the Charter, the Special Committee on Peace-keeping Operations and the Group of Experts on the Structure of the United Nations System. Finally, we should not overlook the possibility of reforms that do not require a revision of the Charter.”
1975-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 30 (1975)
“Such thoughts do not relieve us of the responsibility to rethink these mechanisms and reorder the activities of the Organization. On the contrary, they should stimulate our efforts in that regard. 49. Brazil has given all its support to the work of the Ad Hoc Committee on the Charter of the United Nations. But we understand that the updating of the United Nations must include, along with a revision of the Charter, the adoption of measures that might be put into force independently of amendments to the basic document of the Organization. In fact, this concerns two means leading to the same end, both of which must be undertaken. 50. The revision of the Charter, as is natural in constitutional reforms, gives rise to unfounded enthusiasms and unjustified fears.”
1975-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 30 (1975)
“During the past 30 years great progress has been made in the universal awareness of the real significance of economic co-operation. The United Nations rendered significant service in this respect, having served as the principal forum for the dialog between the major groups, the developed and the developing nations. Notwithstanding the multiplication of specific forums for dealing with economic matters within the Organization, there has always existed, particularly on the part of the Governments of the more developed nations, an unshakable objection to considering as guidelines recommendations designed to orient international co-operation in a way that would foster the balanced development of the community of nations. 48.”
1975-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 30 (1975)
“Nevertheless, for some years now disarmament negotiations have been experiencing a growing bilateralization that limits all initiatives in the matter to the two super-Powers, as if the security of those Powers exists above or at the margin of the international community, or as if the developing nations did not have their own security interests, which are qualitatively different from the security interests of the great Powers or even of the developed nations. 47. The examples that may be extracted from an analysis of the conduct of the United Nations in the economic area are no less eloquent. In that sphere, we must recognize that the Charter was less precise in formulating the objectives and principles for international co-operation. But those were different times.”
1975-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 30 (1975)
“The so-called crisis of the United Nations, as far as the implementation of its loftiest objective is concerned, is based on that fact. It does not originate, either in part or even primarily, in the structural faults of the Organization, but rather in the decision, inspired by considerations of power, not to resort to such means as it places within the reach of States. 46. The long history of disarmament negotiations is a striking example of what I have just said. Article 11, paragraph 1, of the Charter of the United Nations expressly mentions "the principles governing disarmament and the regulation of armaments as constituting the special responsibility of the General Assembly and of the Security Council, as does Article 26.”
1975-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 30 (1975)
“It was customary initially to attribute the limitations of the United Nations in respect of maintaining peace and security to the trauma of the cold war, which paralyzed the will of the Organization in those frequent cases in which a conflict of interests occurred between the super-Powers. Currently, the tendency is to blame detente, a policy which would dispense with the intervention of the United Nations and permit a direct and bilateral understanding between the two principal centers of world power. In any event, both trends reflect the same reluctance, rooted in centuries of power politics, to accept the workings of a system such as that of the United Nations, which aims at the adoption of horizontal guidelines based on the principle of the sovereign equality of States, in favor of a vertical system funded upon subordination.”
1975-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 30 (1975)
“As far as Brazil is concerned, we prefer to avoid straying into a state of general pessimism, in the same way that we frankly avoid the illusions of an equally unrealistic international optimism. Above all, we lean towards a sober vision of the limitations and the possibilities of the United Nations, a vision that would lead us to achieving the objectives of its Charter with a maximum of efficiency. 44. We do not deny reality and we recognize that the United Nations has been unable to achieve the lofty objectives entrusted to it in such fundamental areas as the maintenance of international peace and security and the creation of a more equitable international economic order. 45.”
1975-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 30 (1975)
“Thus it is that the frustrations felt by the international community are systematically attributed to the United Nations as an Organization, when, in the majority of cases, they result from the very limitations inherent in the current international order. Our Organization, however flexible its constitutional structure may be, does not operate within a closed system but in an ambiance of constant interaction with the international macro-structure. 43. Thus, the skepticism which for some time has surrounded the activity of the United Nations often constitutes a kind of shifting of blame by which States attempt to absolve themselves from responsibility for the failures that, in the final analysis, rest primarily upon them.”
1975-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 30 (1975)
“For individuals, as well as for institutions, 30 years of life has a more than merely chronological significance, in the sense that that space of time usually covers fundamental changes in social life and coincides with the very rhythm by which generations succeed one another and history is renewed. The United Nations is undergoing a dynamic and critical revision which could, we all hope, renew it and prepare it for the difficult tasks of the coming years. That impulse for renewal is not generated spontaneously. It springs from all of us who compose the Organization and who are, in fact, its essence. 42. That is a fact frequently overlooked in evaluating the performance of the Organization during these 30 years.”
1975-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 30 (1975)
“Brazil feels linked to the future new African State by ties of history and blood that underscore the community of interests resulting from a spirit of brotherliness forged over the Atlantic. We extend our wish that those who so vigorously promoted the liberation of Angola may overcome the difficulties of the present moment in order to give the new nation the political stability that will definitively ensure its territorial integrity and its independence, free from foreign interference of any kind. 41. Our Organization is about to conclude the third decade of its existence.”
1975-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 30 (1975)
“The tradition that the delegation of Brazil opens the general debate offers me the very particular satisfaction of being able to extend the first welcome to the delegations of three new Members of this Organization. These are Cape Verde, Sao Tome and Principe, and Mozambique. Brazil is especially linked to these nations by the ties of a past that is common in many respects and that we now wish to see projected towards a future of co-operation and understanding. I am certain that the presence of the three Members in this Organization will .be reflected in benefits for the international community. 40. In greeting the new Portuguese-speaking nations that have joined the Organization, I wish to express the fraternal understanding with which Brazil follows the unfolding process of decolonization in Angola.”
1975-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 30 (1975)
“Mr. President, may my first words express the satisfaction with which the delegation of Brazil received the news of your election to the presidency of the thirtieth session of the General Assembly. Luxembourg has a long history of peaceful coexistence and international co-operation which, along with your personal qualities, augurs well for a particularly productive session. 38. It is also a pleasure for me to voice the recognition of the delegation of Brazil for the dedication and efficiency with which the Minister for Foreign Affairs of Algeria, the eminent Mr. Abdelaziz Bouteflika, guided the work of the twenty-ninth session and the seventh special session just concluded. 39.”
1975-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 30 (1975)
“On others, the results obtained have been imperceptible. Nevertheless, there is no reason for dismay. The severity of the problems should constitute for all of us not a reason for disenchantment, but an incentive to redoubled efforts, creative imagination and fidelity to the purposes and principles upon which this Organization of sovereign States was built.”
1974-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 29 (1974)
“If I bring to this rostrum the example of Latin America, it is because I sincerely believe that it constitutes a positive contribution to the realization of the ideals of the United Nations. 38. My reflections have barely touched on some items of the agenda for the present session. The reason is that I have tried to confine myself to an enunciation of Brazil's. position on questions that belong to the agenda of mankind more than to the agenda of the Assembly, and on the set of fundamental problems, the solution of which will determine the shape of the coming decades. 39. I have chosen to concern myself with those problems that are more closely connected with the aspirations of liberty, human dignity, justice, progress and peace. On many of these questions the international community has made considerable progress.”
1974-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 29 (1974)
“We should all be aware that natural resources, the use of which it is intended to regulate in opposition to the sovereign decisions of territorial Governments, do not flow over ground only. There are those that flow beneath the ground, as there are those that flow in the territorial sea. The characteristics of certain resources must be the motive for responsible behavior on the part of those who use them, rather than for hindering their use and thus benefiting no party at all. 37. We are experiencing all these problems in Latin America and we are seeking solutions to them based on the principles of harmony of interests, peaceful understanding and enlightened cooperation, principles that this Organization has established as the foundations of international life.”
1974-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 29 (1974)
“The Brazilian Government, which does not refuse to make use of or to resort to consultation between Governments in this as in any other matter, and which has resorted to this method of procedure frequently in the past, cannot 'accept the perversion of the cooperative function of consultation by questioning the sovereignty of States. For this reason we think it is our duty to awaken the consciences of Governments to the implications of principles of consultation that would injure the sovereign right of countries to use their natural resources, and that, though seemingly constructive, would be potentially disruptive to the international order, which it is our aim to preserve, and an impediment to the material progress of nations, which it is our objective to stimulate.”
1974-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 29 (1974)
“In the case of resources which are, by nature, not static and which flow through the territory of more than one country, that right remains unalterable, those restrictions alone being acceptable that result from the obligation not to cause significant or permanent damage to the exploitation by other countries of the natural resources in their territories. To subordinate the sovereign utilization of our own natural resources to consultations of a.suspensive nature would be to introduce an intolerable disruption in international order, with the result of making the right that we were trying to preside a mere "dead letter".”
1974-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 29 (1974)
“At the same time, the strong cultural and political solidarity that binds together the countries of Latin America, also makes joint endeavors in the economic field ever more viable. Thus we see ever-growing possibilities of cooperation in the use of natural resources common to or shared by more than one country. The. novelty of this form of cooperation, at least on the scale on which it is being developed in Latin America, has not yet permitted a general understanding of its potential or of the problems it involves. I consider it important to bring before the international community my country's point of view on these questions. 36. Brazil considers that the free use and exploitation of the natural resources in its territory is a right inherent in the sovereignty of the State. Such a right cannot brook restrictions.”
1974-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 29 (1974)
“One of the characteristics of the time in which we are living is the growing command that developing countries are assuming over their natural resources. This evolution is allowing those countries to reduce their excessive dependence on the economies of the developed countries and better to orientate their own economic growth. It also opens up unprecedented opportunities for cooperation among developing countries. 35. In Latin America, an awareness of the importance of this process is visibly increasing. The full use of natural resources in Latin American countries is fundamental to the acceleration of the growth of the region and may become a relevant Latin American contribution to the alleviation of the world crises of energy, raw materials and food.”
1974-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 29 (1974)
“Such cooperation, which is in the interest of all countries and all regions, if correctly implemented, may bring about results of extreme importance in the reorientation of the flows of trade, of investments and of financing, correcting the existing distortions which contribute to insecurity and instability in the international field. 33. Latin America, in its mutual solidarity, has a clear conception of the challenge that the present crisis represents for each one of our countries. This challenge does not frighten us; rather, it stimulates us to redouble internally, within each country, the efforts needed to accelerate national progress, and to expand, in the external field, forms of cooperation to achieve common objectives resulting from the convergence of our national interests. 34.”
1974-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 29 (1974)
“It is inhuman to consider that any solution that does not attend to their rights is equitable, and it is an illusion to think that such a solution would be lasting. 32. We are sure, on the other hand, that a greater effort of international cooperation with the countries of the Middle East in the economic and social fields may provide a decisive contribution to peace. It is gratifying to note that wide prospects seem to be opening up in this direction, and there will arise if all parties, conscious of their growing responsibilities, work with creative imagination and firmness of intention unprecedented modalities for cooperation which will be of great significance to the international community, and especially to the developing countries.”
1974-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 29 (1974)
“We, the countries of the American continent, are fortunate to have an institutional solution to such problems and we are proud that the security agreement binding us together has determined, for many years now, that all regional conflicts be solved starting from the initial and indispensable assumption that occupying forces are withdrawn from areas under military invasion. 31. The drama of the Middle East is enlarged and made universal to the extent that it involves human aspects which cannot be ignored. The community of nations must not spare an/ effort, including efforts made in conjunction with the peoples of the Middle East, to ensure that the sufferings of the Palestinian people are alleviated by appropriate measures.”
1974-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 29 (1974)
“Objection to wars of conquest is a constant factor in the history of Brazil and a norm inscribed in our Constitution. We hold the right to territorial integrity and the obligation of respect for sovereignty to be absolute. Consequently, we believe that withdrawal from the occupied territories is an integral part of the solution to the conflict. 29. Only those frontiers which have been negotiated and recognized by all for the good of all will be calm. This is the solution which, by bringing them peace and security, will truly serve the countries of the region. 30.”
1974-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 29 (1974)
“It is surprising—I would even say shocking - to see that the world seems to turn its preoccupations towards the Middle East only when a war crisis occurs in that disturbed region. The set of problems which for so many years have afflicted the peoples of the Middle East should require of the international community a concern to .bring about continuous and creative cooperation. Within that context, if the implementation of Security Council resolution 242 (1967) may indeed constitute one of the possibly indispensable conditions for the development of the solution to the problem, it is also true that that implementation does not exhaust the range of measures essential to the attainment of the greater objectives of peace, security, tranquility, and social and economic development of the countries of the region. 28.”
1974-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 29 (1974)
“This does not mean that the world has reached the certainty of being able to live in peace and security, a certainty which is the most profound aspiration of the majority of peoples. Many are those who still continue to suffer from the bitterness of armed conflict or who live under the recurrent threat of its intensification. We have to recognize that the contribution made by the countries not directly involved in those conflicts to their solution is precarious. And we have to admit that it is the very terror of total nuclear conflict which feeds or allows the growth of those localized wars. 26. The question of the Middle East deserves constant and real attention from all of us. 27.”
1974-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 29 (1974)
“It depends in part on ourselves, the countries that seek development, whether such an entente will be made to our benefit or to our prejudice. It is to a certain extent natural that the great Powers should seek such an entente and, above all, for the preservation of the status quo -which, however, would benefit them only in the short run. However, under its shadow, and this is the only benefit which we receive, we who are less strong must seek only to realize a policy of closer and less tense cooperation in the international field. We must utilize this opening in order to obtain a better coordination of the less developed countries in the defence of their interests in economic and social progress. 25. This evolution has saved us from the spectre of apocalyptic war, which would be the logical consequence of a boundless arms policy.”
1974-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 29 (1974)
“More than anything else, it is shocking to see the magnitude of financial and technological resources devoted to arms production, so many times higher than that which would be necessary to reform the present structure of economic inequities and thus to allow men to live in a world free from fear, more unfettered by shame and, above all, more favorable to the expression of its creative potentialities. 24. There would be reasons, perhaps, to welcome the evolution during recent years from a world in a climate of "cold war" to a world in a climate of detente. We would have more reasons to rejoice if we could see confirmed in the future what seems to be the present evolution of that climate into a virtual entente.”
1974-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 29 (1974)
“It is an enormous responsibility for those who, like the great majority of mankind, have such minute means available to them for influencing global decisions which have such a great effect on them. 22. We stand almost as helpless spectators of the accelerated arms race, which is incessantly pursued under the mantle of protestations of detente at promises of disarmament. The disproportion between the scope of the problem and the measures agreed on for its solution is smaller only than that which exists between the alleged defense justifications and the overwhelming destructive power that has been accumulated already. 23.”
1974-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 29 (1974)
“Thus, when we rejoice at the emergence to independence of new Portuguese-speaking nations, we are not uttering praise for any cultural supremacy but are simply welcoming the opportunities now open for a broader brotherly understanding by the communities of the same language. For the African Portuguese-speaking nations and for other nations what we want is that they may be authentic in the expression of their own rich and varied cultures. We in Brazil, who owe so much to the different African cultures, can only hope that they may reinvigorate themselves in the climate of freedom offered to them by national independence. 21. It has been said, and rightly so, that in the history of mankind ours is the first generation upon which has fallen the task not only of making the world but also of preventing the world from being unmade.”
1974-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 29 (1974)
“To the opening up of prospects for the populations in the Territories under Portuguese administration in Africa, there has not been, unfortunately, any corresponding visible progress in respect to areas under colonial domination in other continents. In the same fashion, there still remain forms of subjugation resulting from racial or religious prejudices. 19. In the United Nations and outside, apartheid has been universally condemned in the name of the most diverse principles. Ethically, it runs directly contrary to the universal values of the human conscience. From the viewpoint of doctrine, it incorporates the most discredited theories of alleged racial superiorities. 20. When we repudiate apartheid we also repudiate any pretension of the international community wishing to colonize culturally the nations of Africa.”
1974-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 29 (1974)
“We hail the agreement that on 7 September the Portuguese Government concluded with the Frente de Libertagao de Mozambique [FRELIMO]. Little more than a century and a half ago the same date marked the first independence of a former Portuguese colony, and it is Brazil, that former colony, which is here represented and which offers its hand to its African brothers. To Brazil this gesture signifies not just an unbending adherence to the inalienable principle of self-determination. To us, the emergence of African nations to independent life has an additional dimension which allows us to take up again, on an equal footing, the close sharing of life with peoples that have been among the most generous sources of our mode of being. 18.”
1974-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 29 (1974)
“His words are so similar to those we have so often uttered in relation to African peoples under colonial domination that they seem almost to have come from the same mouth. I quote them: "Our interest" in developing relations of friendship, solidarity and cooperation with Brazil is all the greater as we feel ourselves linked to the Brazilian people by bonds of blood, culture and history, and we ardently desire to establish with Brazil, after the conquest of our independence, broad fraternal relations in all fields, just as we desire them with the people of Portugal, which we never confused with Portuguese colonialism." 17. The same feeling of brotherhood binds us to Mozambique and Angola, whose independence we want to see completed.”
1974-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 29 (1974)
“Brazil is following this; path, which is not always the easiest one or one which pleases those who cannot distinguish appearance from reality. For the Brazilian Government, the challenge faced by those who want to rid the world of the colonial stigma is the challenge of efficacy. To blame the colonizing past is not what matters; what matter? is rather to help build the future of free nations. This position corresponds to what is deepest in the Brazilian soul. We are prepared to make explicit those sentiments and the aspirations that correspond to them by offering our concrete cooperation in the building of these new nations. 16. Amflcar Cabral, the great leader of the independence of GuineaBissau, was aware of the anti colonialist will of the Brazilian people.”
1974-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 29 (1974)
“We believe that to the extent that the will of the community of sovereign nations in support of acceleration of the decolonization process becomes general, so much greater will be the possibility that decolonization may be achieved peacefully and under conditions that will allow constructive cooperation between the peoples of those countries that were previously held as colonies and the peoples whose Governments had theretofore followed a colonizing policy. In this sense, support given to emancipation is as important as action directed towards the colonizing Governments so that they may detach themselves quickly and with conviction from their policies of colonial domination. In both forms of action the forum of the United Nations has demonstrated its effectiveness, and it is our intention to support it in this role. 15.”
1974-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 29 (1974)
“From this rostrum I wish only to underline which are the problems, in our understanding, to the solution of which we must jointly dedicate our most urgent attention. 14. Immediately the problem of decolonization springs into view. We have on this question a position of absolute clarity: Brazil believes unreservedly that there is no justification for delay or subterfuge in the process of decolonization, both in the American continent itself and over the entire world. Brazil will give its support so that those peoples still subject to forms of colonial domination may achieve, within the shortest possible time, the national independence to which they aspire.”
1974-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 29 (1974)
“Our conduct for attaining those objectives is pragmatic and responsible: pragmatic to the extent to which we desire effectiveness and to which we are disposed to seek, wherever Brazilian national interests may move us, areas of convergence and zones of coincidence with the national interests of other peoples; and responsible because we will always act within the framework of ethics and exclusively as a function of objectives clearly identified and accepted by the Brazilian people. 13. I do not intend to comment on the various items on the agenda of the present session. There will, I am sure, be many occasions on which the Brazilian delegation will speak on those items during the coming weeks.”
1974-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 29 (1974)
“While this is happening, we try to avoid the traps of history by not repeating the errors of nations which became great, many times at the expense of others. We want our presence in a wider ranging international scene to be accompanied by the preservation of the primordial ethical values that have been and that continue to be the bases of our foreign policy. 11. We want our words in the international field to be direct and simple, without ambiguity or subterfuge. We want the Brazilian Government to be able to accomplish the oecumenical vocation of its people, who are open to uninhibited and frank communication. We want to explore the paths of understanding, for we believe, fundamentally, that cooperation is more effective than antagonism and that mutual respect is more creative than ambitions of preponderance. 12.”
1974-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 29 (1974)
“We have repeatedly and publicly enunciated the principles on which the international conduct of President Ernesto Geisel's administration is based, and we have already given sufficient demonstration that we know how to unite action with words when it comes to turning those principles into reality. 10. During recent years Brazil has taken broad steps, first in correcting the main distortions that disrupted its economic and social development and, subsequently, in the consolidation of a model of growth that truly attempts to respond to the authentic aspirations of our national community. Thus the country has grown internally and thus also it has grown in terms of its presence, its potentialities and its responsibilities in the international field.”
1974-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 29 (1974)
“It seems obvious to all that we are at the threshold of a new era which will be one of peace and prosperity or of insecurity and poverty, according to whether we know how to harmonize, in a constructive fashion, the most essential objectives and the most enlightened national interests of each country here represented. Brazil has the benefit of facing the challenge Of this new hour with a Government whose term has just begun and which carries, in its objectives and mode of action, the indisputable stamp of realism and diligence. This allows us to contemplate our action within the Organization against a background that is simultaneously broader in time and more encompassing in tenus of solutions to the problems under consideration. 9.”
1974-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 29 (1974)