YouSaid · the spoken record

GENSCHER

lines on the record: 596
first: 1974-09-24
most recent: 1991-09-24
sittings or episodes: 14
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

“The recent Canberra Conference made an important contribution in support of the Geneva negotiations. All producers are called upon to control trade in chemical substances and facilities that are suitable also for the manufacture of chemical weapons. The Federal Republic of Germany has considerably tightened its own control laws; as acknowledged in the final declaration of the Canberra Conference, it has thus made an advance contribution to the implementation of a future chemical weapons convention. Disarmament is a task not for the industrial nations alone. The developing countries spend $200 billion a year for military purposes. That is four times the official development assistance they receive. Moreover, those resources are unavailable for their development. Regional theatres of conflict are exacerbated by the unbridled trade in arms.”
1989-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 44 (1989)
“President Bush's declaration here at the United Nations that his country is ready to destroy over 80 per cent of its existing chemical weapons stocks even before the conclusion of a chemical weapons convention, provided that the Soviet Union reduces its chemical weapons to the same level, is unprecedented in the history of disarmament negotiations. The Federal Republic of Germany has constantly striven for the successful completion of the Geneva negotiations. President Bush's remarks concerning verification of compliance with a future chemical weapons convention have a significance that goes far beyond the scope of disarmament negotiations. Openness is becoming a guiding principle in dealings between countries. In fact, every step towards a more open world is a step towards the new world we seek.”
1989-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 44 (1989)
“We strongly support the United States-Soviet negotiations in Geneva on nuclear and space weapons. By reducing their nuclear weapons, the nuclear Powers are living up to their responsibility towards the international community. The need for all countries to accede to the non-proliferation Treaty is becoming all the more urgent. The negotiations on a comprehensive, global and verifiable ban on chemical weapons must finally be completed. Only in that way can the spread of those barbaric weapons be prevented.”
1989-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 44 (1989)
“The aim is to ensure that the armed forces of the two sides have the capability of defence only and not of attack, especially surprise attack and large-scale offensive action. Ever more co-operative security structures will emerge, thus providing additional guarantees of security. The negotiations in Vienna on conventional stability and confidence-building measures, as well as the global prohibition of chemical weapons, will lend a new quality to those security structures. The meetings between Secretary of State Baker and Foreign Minister Shevardnadze have provided further signs of hope. In Vienna, Western proposals have created the conditions for far-reaching conventional disarmament. Given good will on the part of all concerned, an initial agreement could be achieved as early as 1990.”
1989-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 44 (1989)
“In that way, the design of a peaceful order for all Europe, the architecture of a pan-European house, is becoming clearly visible. Through arms control and disarmament we want to reduce the military elements of the East-West relationship. We want to demilitarise East-West relations, just as international relations must be demilitarized. We want to create an increasing number of co-operative security structures. We welcome and support the efforts of the United states and the Soviet Union to achieve co-operation marked by increasing mutual trust. An entire continent is seriously committed to agreed and controlled disarmament. The Treaty on intermediate-range nuclear forces - the INF Treaty - was an important step towards that end. The two sides accept the principle that whoever has more weapons must disarm more.”
1989-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 44 (1989)
“That declaration defined goals to which we have long been committed along with our Western partners-, the preservation and shaping of peace, the settlement of existing conflicts, the right of nations to self-determination, the precedence of international law in politics, international co-operation in the economic, scientific and technological fields, the results of which should benefit all mankind, the preservation of the natural environment and the overcoming of hunger and poverty in the world, and the combating of new threats such as epidemics and international terrorism. A peaceful world of free people subject only to the rule of law and whose dignity is no longer impaired by hunger and poverty: that is seen as the true goal of politics.”
1989-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 44 (1989)
“They Jointly focus their attention also on those tasks of the future which, as is stated in the Joint German-Soviet Declaration of June 1989, can be mastered only through concerted action by all states and peoples. The Moscow Treaty continues to form the foundation of the relationship between our two countries. The German-Soviet Declaration underscores the importance of German-Soviet relations for the whole of Europe. This calls for new thinking by everyone and for everyone.”
1989-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 44 (1989)
“The German Democratic Republic, under its own conditions, can contribute, through reforms, towards greater openness in Europe. just as the Soviet Union, Poland and Hungary are doing already. We have been deeply moved as we have witnessed, in recent weeks, the fate of young people who are sorrowfully leaving their home and familiar borrowings. Nobody can want such a development. A policy of reform would open up new prospects for the people of the German Democratic Republic, as in other Central and Eastern European countries. These would encourage the people to stay where they grew up and where they are at home. Today, East and West no longer discuss only the problems that have accused between them since the War.”
1989-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 44 (1989)
“In these endeavours we act on the foundation of the basic Treaty with the German Democratic Republic and are guided by the Joint declarations issued by Chancellor Kohl and General Secretary Honecker on 12 March 1965 and 8 September 1,87. New and closer forms of co-operation are needed in many fields - economic and technological, scientific and cultural, transport and protection of the environment. The two German states - each in its own fashion - must contribute towards overcoming the things that separate Europeans from each other. They must face the new developments occurring in the whole of Europe and work for their success. The Federal Republic of Germany wholeheartedly supports the process of European unification within the European Community, as well as the efforts of European countries aimed at reform.”
1989-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 44 (1989)
“The Federal Republic of Germany, as a country situated in the heart of Europe, brings all its weight to bear for the purpose of co-operation, understanding and disarmament conducive to a better Europe. This includes cooperation with the German Democratic Republic. The two German States are aware of their responsibility for peace in Europe. This responsibility weighs more heavily than do those things that divide us. On the basis of this common responsibility, the two German States have already made substantial contributions towards detente and disarmament in Europe. In particular, the people in our States have benefited from this.”
1989-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 44 (1989)
“That can be achieved only together with all other States in Europe - not against them. Nobody in Europe has cause to fear our policy. Our policy is linked to the destiny of the entire continent. It is a European peace policy. This precludes any national solo efforts. We consider it our task to work for a pan-European peaceful order from which no country may be excluded or nay exclude itself, our foreign policy, in accordance with the dictates of our Constitution, rejects any kind of power politics. It is a policy of responsibility, it is determined by the fundamental values of our Constitution, it is based on unconditional fidelity to treaties.”
1989-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 44 (1989)
“In the West, too, nobody should underestimate the new possibilities; instead, people should make resolute use of them for the benefit of all Europe. History tends not to repeat the opportunities it offers. I appeal to the countries of Europe not to let this historic juncture slip by. We Western democracies offer stable-framework conditions for this reform process. Statesmanly foresight and statesmanly responsibility are required now on all sides. Nobody can want others to be destabilized. The Federal Republic of Germany regards a peaceful order in Europe as the framework also for the goal defined in the Letter on German Unity: "to work for a state of peace in Europe in which the German nation will recover its unity in free self-determination". We want to attain this goal while fully observing the treaties that we have signed.”
1989-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 44 (1989)
“We agree with our Western friends that the reform processes in Central and Eastern Europe are in the interests of all Europe and of the world. They deserve our support, not least through common, co-ordinated action, through a plan of solidarity for Europe. This process of reform in Central and Eastern Europe is not a case of one side's opinion being adopted by the other; it is a process of self-reflection on the common foundations of European culture and European history, to which all European nations have made great contributions. The reforms have become irreversible because man's yearning for more freedom is irreversible, but the developments are not immune to standstills, or even setbacks. In the long run, however, no country can evade this development. Anyone who hopes that the reforms will fail will be overtaken by the development.”
1989-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 44 (1989)
“Transport structures covering the whole of Europe are needed. We are receptive to ideas and suggestions from others. The trade limitations introduced for strategic reasons must be adapted to the changed quality of political, security-policy, economic and technological co-operation between West and East. They must not become an obstacle to a far-sighted policy. East and West have opted for the path of co-operation. That is a source of hope for the nations of the world - not only the nations of Europe, The vision of a peaceful order in Europe, from the Atlantic to the Urals - as the West proposed in the Harmel report as early as 1967, and as recurs in General Secretary Gorbachev's concept of the common European house - is opening up. The bold reforms in the Soviet Union, in Hungary and in Poland point in that direction.”
1989-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 44 (1989)
“The European Community, which is heading for a European Union, sees itself as a factor for economic and political stability in the world, it maintains closer relations, including those based on agreements with its neighbours in Europe and with States and groupings of States in all other continents. It strongly promotes voluntary regional associations in other parts of the world. It has to be open to multifaceted and broad-based co-operation with those countries of Central and Eastern Europe that desire it. New forms of co-operation and exchange are required. EUREKA is an offer open to all those who are interested. The new environment agency set up by the European Community can become the starting-point of new pan-European co-operation in the area of the protection of the environment.”
1989-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 44 (1989)
“The groundwork for the developments we are today witnessing in Europe, for the prospects that are now discernible, was laid by the founding of the European Community, by the treaties of Moscow and Warsaw, by the treaty with the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, by the Basic Treaty with the German Democratic Republic and by the Helsinki Final Act. These are European paths that come towards each other; they must therefore be strengthened and extended. Nobody will be allowed to stray from them. We shall remain committed to the letter and spirit of those treaties. Major elements of that peaceful order are the European Community and the Conference on Security and Co-operation in Europe process.”
1989-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 44 (1989)
“Ever since its inception the Federal Republic of Germany has framed a European peace policy. As a member of the European Community and of the Atlantic Alliance, we belong to the family of Western democracies. To the United States we are linked through deep friendship, through the Alliance and through a commitment to common values. President Bush impressively reaffirmed this in his speech at Mainz, with France we have established a unique partnership and co-operation, as reflected in the Franco-German Treaty and in our day-today politics. This points to the future.”
1989-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 44 (1989)
“Precisely because we Germans are aware of our responsibility for the Second World war we perceive our duty to work for a better world, for a world of peace, democracy and solidarity between nations, for a world of freedom and human rights, for a world at peace with nature. The Polish nation was the first victim of the war deliberately unleashed by Hitlerian Germany 50 years ago. And I am turning to You Mr. Skubiszewski, Foreign Minister of the new Poland, to say that the Polish people are assured that their right to live in secure borders will not be called into question, not now nor in the future, through territorial claims by us Germans. The wheel of history will not be turned back. Together with Poland we want to work for a better future for Europe. The inviolability of borders is the basis of peaceful relations in Europe.”
1989-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 44 (1989)
“In the year 2030 there will be 10 billion people on earth. For their sake -and it is not for distant descendants whose faces are hidden from us by the mist of distant centuries; it is for our children, our grandchildren - we must today lay the groundwork so that the glebe will remain habitable. No single country on Earth, however rich and powerful, is able to handle this task by itself and through its own ability. Joint efforts by all mankind are needed. First and foremost this means that we must move away from confrontation towards co-operation, we require co-operative structures.”
1989-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 44 (1989)
“but new structures are already becoming visible everywhere. We are confronted with global challenges. The natural sources of life are increasingly being jeopardized. In the last two years, world food production dropped for the first time. Plants and animals are becoming extinct. New epidemics are spreading. A large part of mankind lives in dire poverty. Terrorism and illicit drug trafficking call for joint action by the international community. Underdevelopment and the debt burden deprive a large section of mankind of any hope. Excessive armaments and regional conflicts, as well as violations of human rights and of the right of nations to self-determination, require fundamental new thinking and actions, m Europe there is fresh hope for a better future. This will have positive effects on the entire world.”
1989-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 44 (1989)
“I congratulate you, Sir, on your election as President of the General Assembly. Your experience and the esteem in which you are held as the former Foreign Minister of Nigeria, as its Permanent Representative to the United Nations and as Chairman of the Special Committee against Apartheid guarantee that you will excellently perform the duties of your office. At the same time I wish to pay deepest respect to your predecessor, Mr. Dante Caputo of Argentina, and thank him for the exemplary and successful conduct of his functions. Foreign Minister Dumas of France presented the views of the members of the European Community yesterday. I thank him for his clear statement. Now, at the closing of this millennium we are moving towards a new phase in world politics. The old structures still largely determine the political scene.”
1989-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 44 (1989)
“The people are determined and inspired by the idea of their inalienable human dignity, the idea of freedom and the idea of peace. Nothing is more powerful than an idea whose time has come. The time has come. We must act now.”
1988-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 43 (1988)
“West and East, North and South, must channel their energies into a new responsibility for this planet and for the future of mankind. We must no longer ask what our neighbours are doing to protect the Earth. We must ask what we ourselves can do, what can we do together. We need not despair in the face of this responsibility, which is unique in the history of mankind. We have no reason to be faint-hearted or despondent. As we face up to our responsibility for the future our best allies are the nations themselves. The people wish to live, they wish to live without fear; they wish to live without want. They will no longer allow themselves to be made objects of exploitation, oppression and power politics. They demand the chance to exercise their human rights, their civil, economic and social rights.”
1988-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 43 (1988)
“The scientist accepts as a matter of course that there is a complex interdependence, an interaction of different elements and processes. Similarly, politics too must now be understood as the interaction of quite different people, States and systems with but one framework for their actions, the biosphere in which we live, and with one dimension of responsibility, which extends far beyond our age, embracing the survival of mankind and the fate of the whole of creation. Let us erect a barrier against the maltreatment and destruction of creation. Because we all depend on the success of these efforts, we all depend on one another. While dependence compels all of us to desist from trying to dominate others, to desist from an arms race and to reject the arrogance of power and the egoism of the stronger.”
1988-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 43 (1988)
“The international community as a whole is responsible for the state of the Earth, which has been entrusted to us for safekeeping. The consequences of any aberrations affect us all. Genetic engineering will soon give man the power to change himself. This poses the question of our self-perception as human beings, a question which no congress of biogenetic engineers, no State, but only mankind itself can answer. It therefore needs to be dealt with by the United Nations. Let us bring together the best and the wisest citizens of all nations so that they may tell us where man should set his own limits if he is not to betray himself, if he is not to abandon his dignity, his uniqueness. We must set our minds to that task. It, too, calls for a new approach.”
1988-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 43 (1988)
“More than 800 million people have suffered as a result of such disasters and damage to property has exceeded $23 billion. The forty-second session of the General Assembly quite rightly proclaimed the last 10 years of the century the decade for disaster prevention. The number of disasters afflicting mankind that do not have natural causes but are nature's reaction to its maltreatment by man is increasing all the time. The repair of damage resulting from such disasters must be complemented by preventive measures designed to ensure their early detection and mitigate their consequences. We already have the science and technology to achieve this, if only we can pool our efforts. This is a dictate of political and economic reason and applies to all members in the community of nations.”
1988-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 43 (1988)
“Such a review should be carried out as a matter of course in the context of all development co-operation between North and South. The extent of the danger to which we are all exposed is obvious from the changes in the world's climate. The gap in the Earth's ozone layer is constantly widening. A commission appointed by the German Federal Republic Parliament came to the conclusion that a catastrophic deterioration of the Earth's climate can be avoided only if the present international agreements are drastically tightened up in the next few years and if the aerosols causing the damage to the ozone layer have been almost completely removed by the year 20Ü0, Over the past 20 years more than 3 million people have lost their lives as a result of natural disasters all over the world.”
1988-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 43 (1988)
“The political and economic colonialism of the past must not now be followed by poison-garbage colonialism. There is more to the relationship between development and ecology than that, however. Many developing countries, owing to their economic plight, are compelled to over-exploit their natural resources. The economy-ecology relationship must be made one of the main items of the agenda in the North-South dialogue. The violation and destruction of nature is much the same as the violation of human rights. The damage caused in one country is the concern of all- Who would still dispute that this has long since become a task of world domestic policy? For this reason, all German development projects are thoroughly examined as to their compatibility with the environment.”
1988-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 43 (1988)
“In their joint efforts to promote development the industrial and developing countries must make sure that those very efforts do not themselves become one of the factors causing the destruction of the environment. The principle still to be observed is that the industrial countries, when investing in developing countries, should submit to the standards that apply at home. The idea of introducing an international criminal law for crimes against the environment, which is being considered by the Committee on Crime Prevention and Control, is right. We must prevent large parts of the third world being turned into poison-garbage depots of the northern over-consumption societies as a result of criminal transport practices, but also as a result of exploitation of the financial distress of some developing countries.”
1988-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 43 (1988)
“Such funds will not bring any long-term benefits, however, unless the recipients carry out effective adjustment programmes which create suitable conditions. We hope that the new Multilateral Investment Guarantee Agency will also be conducive to this process. It remains indispensable to secure free access for developing countries to the markets of industrial countries. The main problem here lies in non-tariff trade barriers. These must be removed in the course of the ongoing Uruguay Round if the concept of free world trade is not to lose its credibility. In the first six months of this year our imports from developing countries increased by over 5 per cent, while corresponding exports are down by more than 8 per cent.”
1988-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 43 (1988)
“Our development assistance to the least developed countries is already being provided in grant form My Government also proposes that initial, tangible debt-servicing relief should be afforded within the scope of the Paris Club rescheduling operations. It has also decided to broaden and considerably ease the terms of our bilateral financial co-operation with our partners in the third world. We expect the commercial banks too to increase their commitment in the developing countries. Many of the newly industrializing economies as well are suffering from the consequences of their heavy foreign debts. Here, too, the commercial banks in particular are urgently called upon to provide the funds necessary to ensure the economic development of these countries.”
1988-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 43 (1988)
“11 had previously cancelled about 2.9 billion marks of the debt owed by 20 of these countries. It has also announced its readiness to write off debts worth about 2.3 billion marks for six more African countries that are not among the least developed countries and are prepared to implement adjustment and reform programmes in collaboration with the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank. All donors should include in their official aid to the poorest countries a large grant element. We intend to increase the grant element of our financial co-operation with the developing countries overall.”
1988-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 43 (1988)
“In spite of some favourable trends this year - the world economic situation having improved more than expected - we must admit that poverty in the third world is growing and the debt burden is growing. True, the gross domestic product increased in the developing countries as well last year, bat in many instances this improvement is being negated by population growth. Investments for the future are impeded by debt-servicing commitments. In 1987 the debt-servicing payments of developing countries exceeded incoming funds by $15 billion. In such circumstances it is impossible for these countries to increase their economic potential. The situation is particularly serious in the sub-Saharan countries. My Government supports the programme of action adopted at the special session of the General Assembly on Africa.”
1988-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 43 (1988)
“It is on this and not on the development of new and ever more terrible weapons of mass destruction that the energy and the technology of industrial countries must he concentrated. What the nations of the third world need from industrial countries is not weapons but help for their development. I repeat my proposal that the United Nations record exports of weapons in a register. I welcome the Soviet Union's support for this proposal as expressed yesterday. The purpose is also to satisfy the basic needs of hundreds of millions of people in the developing countries. Time and again, at ever shorter intervals, catastrophic food shortages occur which pose a challenge to mankind's solidarity and willingness to help. But humanitarian assistance alone cannot solve the problem.”
1988-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 43 (1988)
“We are faced with the task of preserving our natural sources of life and pressing ahead with the development of the third world. The two are closely intertwined. At present the world's population is more than 5 billion; soon it will be 6 billion. According to the World Bank statistics, about one billion people live in absolute poverty. The industrial countries - all industrial countries; not only those in the West but also the socialist States - have a duty to act together. We must use our economic, scientific and technological potentials in order to render development possible and to preserve the world's natural sources of life. This presupposes the development of new forms of transport, new sources of energy, new materials and new production methods.”
1988-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 43 (1988)
“New thinking requires that over the net of deterrence - the safety net of the ultimate ratio - an additional net of new, co-operative structures of military security be created which will reduce the enormous risks of exclusive reliance on deterrence. Being realists, we know that we cannot base today's security on hopes for tomorrow. But, being men of action, meeting our responsibility for the future, we must today already create the foundations for our future security, foundations which must be broader, more solid and stronger than the ones on which peace has been based up to now. Mankind's future is not threatened by war alone. There is a growing danger of man's destroying his own sources of life on this planet.”
1988-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 43 (1988)
“I appeal to all concerned, to all the participants in the CSCE, to adopt before the end of October 1988, together with this final document of the Vienna CSCE follow-up meeting, a mandate for the commencement of negotiations on conventional stability. The time is ripe; all must now live up to their responsibility. Unlimited armaments do not create unlimited security, but balanced and mutual disarmament can help create more security. That is why disarmament and arms control are just as much an integral part of the security policy of the Atlantic Alliance as our defence efforts. In the nuclear age war must be made un-wageable once and for all.”
1988-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 43 (1988)
“We welcome President Reagan's initiative calling for a conference of the signatories of the 1925 Geneva Protocol. While pursuing all these efforts, we must devote our entire energy to the task of achieving a global ban as the priority objective. In the field of conventional arms our aim is to remove superiority and imbalances by means of asymmetrical disarmament. We want to create conditions in Europe in which neither side will still be capable of launching an attack on foreign territory. Large-scale offensive options do not feature in our Western concept. True conventional stability and further confidence-building require also consensus on the question of the defence philosophy underlying the policies. We seek а consensus on the functions to be given to both sides' forces. This must cover their size, equipment and command principles.”
1988-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 43 (1988)
“Reducing the strategic nuclear forces of both super-Powers by half must become a reality. The shocking pictures of the consequences of the use of chemical weapons prompt me to appeal to all participants in the Geneva Conference on Disarmament to bring the now-far-advanced negotiations on a global ban on such weapons to the earliest possible conclusion. Only a world-wide convention ensuring the verifiable prevention of the manufacture, storage, transfer and use of chemical weapons can free mankind from the scourge of these cruel weapons for all time. My Government is playing an active part also in efforts to strengthen all instruments which can be utilized to prevent the use and proliferation of chemical weapons even before a global ban is in force.”
1988-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 43 (1988)
“Technological development leaves in our hands the decision whether we create a better and more humane world or we perish. The responsibility not only for ourselves but for all future generations must determine our policies, our thinking and our actions. In view of the danger of nuclear annihilation, the disarmament process had to begin with nuclear disarmament. In this connection the Treaty on intermediate-range nuclear forces represents a breakthrough of fundamental importance since till now arms have only been limited. Now, for the first time, a whole class of weapons is being eliminated. The global elimination of Soviet and United States intermediate-range nuclear weapons must be followed by radical measures with regard to nuclear, chemical and conventional weapons.”
1988-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 43 (1988)
“The Final Act of Helsinki marks the course towards a peaceful order in Europe in which states with different political and social systems can live together in peaceful competition without fear of one another. By seeking to establish such a peaceful order in Europe, the Federal Republic of Germany is complying with the mandate of its Constitution, the Basic Law, which is to serve the cause of peace in Europe and to overcome the separation of our indivisible nation. Our efforts to achieve the early conclusion of the Vienna follow-up meeting with the adoption of a substantive and we11-balanced final document should bring us another step forward towards a European peaceful order. We are today confronted with the task of protecting mankind from the dangers which man himself has created.”
1988-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 43 (1988)
“Chancellor Helmut Kohl's forthcoming visit to the Soviet Union will serve that purpose. We have been nailing for a peaceful order in Europe ever since the Atlantic alliance presented its Harmel report in 1967. For a long time we received no answer to this proposed grand design for a better Europe. The policy initiated by General-Secretary Gorbachev in the Soviet Union can turn the design contained in the Harmel report into reality. This new policy in the Soviet Union meets not merely with a favourable but with a constructive response from us. We all have a responsibility to use every opportunity to bring about a change for the better. The distinct improvement in United States-Soviet relations indicates the opportunities arising there from.”
1988-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 43 (1988)
“Through our membership of the European Community and the Atlantic alliance, we Germans in the Federal Republic of Germany have responsibly used the freedom we regained after the Second World War. We have established the strongest imaginable bond States can have: the bond of common values. Our commitment to peace in Europe also led us to conclude treaties with the Soviet Union, the Polish People's Republic and Czechoslovakia, and to conclude the Basic Treaty with the German Democratic Republic, united, too, to our active participation in bringing about the Final Act of Helsinki and in the process of the Conference on Security and Co-operation in Europe (CSCE). We regard the development of our relations with the Soviet Union, which are of crucial importance to us, as playing a key role in improving the overall West-Fast relationship.”
1988-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 43 (1988)
“That identity emanates from our common European history, Europe's glories and aberrations, its common culture - to which all European nations have made major contributions, and from the awareness of our mutual responsibility for the future of our continent and for peace and development in the world. Decades of separation have not made two Europes out of one Europe; decades of separation have not made two German nations out of one German nation. The German people in the heart of Europe, having often been in conflict with its neighbours, has learned its lessons from history. Both German States are meeting their responsibility for peace in Europe, including through mutual co-operation. 4hat benefits all Europeans.”
1988-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 43 (1988)
“As a result of increasing co-operation, of genuine détente and of disarmament, the military elements will lose significance in the West-East relationship, whereas political, economic, ecological and cultural co-operation will gain in importance. Thanks to this development. West and Fast will derive a fresh potential which can he used not for disarmament but for the advancement their own societies and for co-operation with the developing countries. The change for the better in the whole of Europe derives energy from the revival of our continent's identity.”
1988-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 43 (1988)
“Europe's future lies not in hoping for, let alone seeking, the destabilization of the other side, but rather in co-operation and productive competition. The manifold forms of co-operation will determine the architecture of the peaceful order in Europe or, as it also can be termed, the common European house. The ensuing interdependence will enhance mutual confidence and make for greater stability. This new order must not be characterized by fences, but by open doors, by freedom of movement for people, for ideas and goods, as well as respect for human rights. One of the pillars of the European structure is and will remain the European Community oriented towards openness and co-operation. We know that Europe is more than the European Community. President Mitterrand put this most impressively in his historic speech in Aachen in 1987.”
1988-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 43 (1988)
“As the Lomé Conventions, our agreements with the Mediterranean area and our co-operation agreements with the Association of South-East Asian Nations, the States of Central America and the Gulf Co-operation Council show, the European Community is already a major partner of the countries of the third world. This co-operation takes place on the basis of equal rights. The powerful growth of the European Community creates a considerable opportunity for the development of West-East relations. The task now is to plan the architecture of the whole of Europe, from the Atlantic to the Urals. The more the Soviet Union pursues the process of opening itself internally and externally, the more capable it will become of co-operation with the West and the East. We want this reform policy to prove successful.”
1988-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 43 (1988)
“The European Community has committed itself to free world trade and world economic co-operation. It is becoming a driving force of growth not only for ourselves but for the world economy as a whole. This makes us resolute opponents of protectionism. The growth potential of the single market and of the common social and monetary area will make the European Community even more capable of developing a world economic partnership with the North American democracies and Japan. By increasing our economic strength we can also increasingly promote the development of the third world. The larger European market will be able to absorb even more products from the third world.”
1988-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 43 (1988)
“It has become obvious that West-East confrontation must not be carried over into the third world but must, where it arises, be defused step by step and, as far as possible, be resolved through dialogue and co-operation. The progress of the European Community is one of the promising world trends. By creating a community of 12 European democracies we have won a victory over national egoism, power politics and prejudice. It is the greatest and finest victory in the history of Europe. It has not cost a single human life, yet it is winning us the future. Franco-German friendship and co-operation are at the core of this future-oriented development. The European Community is the most advanced association of sovereign States to date. The dynamism and attractiveness of our Community are growing constantly.”
1988-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 43 (1988)
“My Government hopes that the deliberations of the forthcoming diplomatic conference in Vienna will lead to a United Nations convention to combat illegal drug trafficking. This could mean considerable progress. We can look to the future with confidence. The community of nations is showing greater respect for the rule of law. There is a growing willingness to resolve even the most serious differences by negotiation. This indicates a fundamental change in international relations. The core of these changes is in the attempts by West and East to place their relations on a new foundation. One of the reasons why the world Organization has been able to achieve progress in the peaceful settlement of conflicts is that West and East have increasingly been co-operating to this end.”
1988-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 43 (1988)