YouSaid · the spoken record

Hurd

THE RECORD WRITES THIS SPEAKER AS HURD

lines on the record: 97
first: 1990-09-24
most recent: 1994-09-24
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

“These are the aims - clearly stated in our Charter, clearly stated in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Sometimes they have seemed far out of reach. I believe that, as a result of recent events and currents, they are no longer out of reach and we in Britain, the British Government, will work enthusiastically and energetically within the United Nations to bring them within the grasp of all.”
1991-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 46 (1991)
“In Latin America, in Africa and Asia, the same trends are clearly visible. The age of alibis is over. The rhetoric of the 1950s and the 1960s - which as I remember used to echo rather wearily in this Hall - makes no sense any more. Imperialism can no longer, in 1991, be blamed for bad government. The capitalist system can no longer be blamed for lack of prosperity. The evidence, the facts, the experience of the last decade have proved the contrary. I believe that the United Nations, the Commonwealth to which we belong, the regional organizations can all help this realism to expand and deepen. He are talking, are we not, about consent in place of command, freer trade, edging out protectionism, honest government replacing corruption, government based on elections rather than dictatorship, nations cooperating instead of seeking to dominate.”
1991-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 46 (1991)
“There will be setbacks, occasions where hope is stimulated, then delayed or even reversed) and it would be patronizing for any one of us to suppose that there is only one model, only one type of institution which can reflect this trend. There is no Westminster model, no Paris model, no Washington model, certainly no Kremlin model which can be exported unchanged to Africa, Latin America, the Middle East or Asia. We all set about it in different ways. In negotiations inside our European community, we are working hard for an important European step forward before the end of this year along the path of joint action by sovereign States. The peoples of the Soviet Union, as I have mentioned, faced with a quite different set of problems, will be working out their own answers.”
1991-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 46 (1991)
“He knows he has our full support in trying to persuade those closely concerned first into a negotiation and then into a settlement. Through all these different events, these different problems - and many others I have not mentioned - we can see the same thrust. It is a thrust towards better government, more representative government, better cooperation between nations, greater concern for the individual and his or her rights. No one with any sense of history supposes that this current will run with the same strength and at the same time through all the countries and continents represented here. There will be bastions where authoritarian rule still meets only a faint challenge. There will be cruel and bloody quarrels resurrected from a past which we hoped was dead.”
1991-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 46 (1991)
“I welcome in particular, and most recently, the recognition by Guatemala of the independence of the State of Belize. This makes a big contribution to regional stability. It is very good news also that in the last few days the remaining obstacles to a comprehensive political settlement on Cambodia have been overcome. This settlement now needs to be concluded with all speed. The United Nations will remain firmly engaged in carrying out the peace process and this will be an ambitious and, indeed, expensive, unprecedented undertaking. But the price here for Cambodia - for Indochina generally - is very great. May I, on behalf of the country intimately involved in another of these problems - the affairs of Cyprus - wish the Secretary-General particular success in bringing that dispute to an agreed conclusion.”
1991-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 46 (1991)
“But the international community as a whole has to be increasingly aware of the fundamental nature of this problem. And so, resistance to aggression, search for disarmament, relief of suffering: these are all parts of the gigantic and I must say growing tasks laid on the United Nations. The Secretary-General has always laid a particular emphasis on preventive diplomacy, on trying to tackle a dispute or a danger before it explodes into violence and suffering. And we have learned to rely on his combination of skill, firmness and courtesy - a combination which he has made very much his own. El Salvador, Western Sahara, Angola: in all these the United Nations has been active either in seeking to prevent trouble or in steering a problem onto a new track away from the suffering which has already occurred.”
1991-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 46 (1991)
“Eighty per cent of refugees are in the third world. Developed countries face an unprecedented growth in the numbers seeking asylum. Some of these are refugees as defined by the United Nations in its 1951 Convention. But most are not. We would not be able to continue to offer political asylum in the present way if the system were overwhelmed by economic migrants. Such migrants can deprive the countries they come from of youth and talent and, as we see in Hong Kong - and begin to see in Western Europe - economic migration above a certain level can also create serious political and social strains in the receiving country. The Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees has a vital role within its sphere and its sphere expands all the time.”
1991-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 46 (1991)
“There needs to be prompt decision-making and funding in the critical early weeks of an emergency. Preparation is the key to success and would, under our proposal, be the responsibility of one person. The United Nations is best placed to deal with the human consequences of natural disasters. The United Nations, as has already been stressed, can do more to protect the global environment. Agreement on how we conserve the resources of our planet and use them for sustainable development is equally vital for the future of the world. We have to establish clear priorities soon for what next year's Conference on Environment and Development, in Bio, can achieve. The United Nations can also help with another problem which is looming larger in our world. I refer to the increasing number of migrants around the world.”
1991-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 46 (1991)
“We believe there is another lesson which comes from our experiences in the Middle East in the last year. It is the need to handle emergencies better. Tragedy has touched not just the Middle East, but Bangladesh and Africa, and I should like to pay tribute to the international agencies for all the devotion and effort they have put into tackling these tragedies. But we have learned again that coordination, early response, effective delivery are crucial. That is why we are proposing a new and, we hope, more effective structure for handling emergencies and disasters starting with an inventory of human and material resources available from donors and non-governmental organizations. At the apex - at the top of this structure - we would like to see one high-powered official immediately under the Secretary-General.”
1991-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 46 (1991)
“The United States and the Soviet Union signed the START Treaty in July. The main Powers, the main arms suppliers are beginning to reduce the level of their own armaments; they are not simply asking other people to do so. The search for this lower level of armaments is never going to be easy in the real world, and I think we are justified in taking it step by step, provided that one step does in fact follow another. We are justified in being realistic, provided that realism is not an excuse for inaction. The British Government announced yesterday that henceforth we shall adopt a policy of full-scope safeguards as a condition of the supply of significant new nuclear supplies. This means that such goods will not be exported to any country, other than the nuclear-weapon States, where there are any un-safeguarded nuclear installations.”
1991-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 46 (1991)
“With the support of our partners in the European Community, and others, Britain is sponsoring a draft resolution at this session of the General Assembly which we hope will result in the prompt establishment of such a register. The process of consultations on arms exports is well under way. It has been discussed at many international gatherings in recent months, and we have been encouraged by the willingness of arms exporters, large and small, to exchange information about arms sales which hitherto has been jealously guarded. After that, we have to harmonize as best we can the criteria - the tests - by which each arms exporter judges a possible sale. Openness of this kind will encourage confidence. Confidence allows action. In Europe we agreed on the Treaty on Conventional Forces in Europe (CFE) last November.”
1991-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 46 (1991)
“But the conflict in the Gulf showed how peace can be undermined when a country acquires an arsenal which goes way beyond the needs of self-defence, and in the United Nations have to make sure that that does not happen again. We believe that all States should observe and apply the three principles: transparency, consultation and action. And that is why, as a significant step towards transparency, Britain has proposed a universal register of arms transfers under the auspices of the United Nations. Such a register would alert the International community to an attempt by a country to build up holdings of conventional weapons beyond a reasonable level.”
1991-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 46 (1991)
“Now that Iraq is out of Kuwait, the United Nations is insisting - for the first time - that a Member State forgo weapons of mass destruction and pay compensation to its victims. The United Nations is resolved to maintain sanctions until Iraq shows that it is playing a constructive part in regional stability, until Iraq observes the rules of international law. Iraq has to comply with the Security Council resolutions, which are mandatory. If it does not, it must face the consequences, and the consequences of persistent defiance would be grave indeed. So we all share the responsibility to prevent the re-emergence of a danger such as the one we have experienced from Iraq. Everyone accepts that many States depend on arms imports to assure a reasonable level of security and the inherent right of self-defence, which is recognized in our Charter.”
1991-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 46 (1991)
“No one who studies the statistics of population growth in that country measured against economic production, no one who visits the townships outside Durban, Johannesburg and Cape Town can doubt either the need or the urgency of this help if the new South Africa is to make a good start and establish itself as a helpful, supportive neighbour to the other countries of southern Africa. Against this background, against this pattern, how can we build up the performance of our United Nations? Nothing of course changes the elementary duty of the United Nations to do all it can to protect its Members by checking and reversing aggression. That is fundamental. Iraq's invasion of Kuwait was an unusually clear example.”
1991-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 46 (1991)
“The courage shown by State President De Klerk, Mr. Nelson Mandela and other leaders of the South African people deserves to be recognized and encouraged. Here again, it is not for the outside world to decide on the constitutional pattern of the new South Africa, though I think we are entitled to urge forward those who are now beginning that task. It is for us, and particularly perhaps as far as we are concerned for the members of the Commonwealth at our forthcoming Heads of Government meeting in Harare, to consider how we can give practical help to the new South Africa.”
1991-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 46 (1991)
“That progress should not be dissipated or put at risk by lack of adequate coherent authority in the Soviet Union. The Republics are making their own arrangements with the centre to influence the course of foreign policy, and we look forward to the outcome. But it would be a pity, from the point of view of the United Nations, if the cooperation which we have recently come to expect from the Soviet Union on, for example, the Middle East, the problems of the Gulf, the problems of Africa, were dissipated just when its usefulness is most apparent. I mentioned South Africa. The situation there is entirely different, but there is one common thread. Here too we are watching the disappearance of a regime which was based on suppression and discrimination. No one can now suppose that apartheid can survive or can return.”
1991-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 46 (1991)
“In the Soviet Union when people are hungry this winter we can help to feed them out of the surpluses of the West and, I hope, of central and eastern Europe. We can provide - we are providing - technical assistance, particularly to help bring the food from the farms to the shops. We can build up our relationships with the Republics of the Soviet Union as they gain in authority. He can continue the friendly pressure for human rights embodied in the Charter of Paris of the CSCE, signed last November. It is not in the interests of the International community that the Soviet Union should entirely disintegrate, leaving no central authority to deal with those matters where central decisions are needed. Dramatic progress has been made over arms control and disarmament.”
1991-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 46 (1991)
“I hope and believe that the Security Council, at its meeting this afternoon, can add its unique authority to the efforts already being made by the European Community and by the Conference on Security and Cooperation in Europe (CSCE) to help those among all the peoples of Yugoslavia who want to see an end to bloodshed and the beginning of a new pattern for their future. I share the emotions and anxieties expressed a few minutes ago here by Hans Dietrich Genscher, on behalf of Germany, and all of us in the European Community will work strenuously, continuously, to help the Yugoslavs find that new pattern for their future. We cannot prescribe or dictate this pattern either for the peoples of the Soviet Union or for the peoples of Yugoslavia. We can show sympathy, understanding and help for the huge task of reform now under way.”
1991-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 46 (1991)
“The new system tries to accommodate the principle of national identity without following that principle into anarchy. Nationalism is a legitimate expression of a people's aspirations; but we have all learned the hard way that nationalism is not enough. A new flag, an old flag revived, a new capital, a new parliament, new uniforms do not in themselves bring security and happiness. Nationalism can be sterile unless it respects the rights of individuals and minorities. Nationalism can be dangerous unless nation States work together for collective security and collective prosperity. So consent within nations, cooperation between nations, must be the pattern at which we aim. These or similar thoughts must have been in many of our minds as we watched the tragedy of Yugoslavia unfolding.”
1991-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 46 (1991)
“It may be rash, but I believe that we are now watching the collapse of the principle of empire. By that, I mean the principle that people can be forced to work together under a central rule in which they do not themselves participate and which has no respect for their rights. In some places the end of this principle of empire is coming slowly. In others its collapse has been sudden. For example we are seeing beyond doubt the disintegration of the last of the great colonial empires of the last century, namely, that put together by the Russian Tsars. That system, which was transformed into a communist empire by Lenin and Stalin, is now smashed for good - and smashed not by its critics or competitors from outside but by the peoples whom it sought to imprison. That old system has gone; a new system is struggling to birth.”
1991-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 46 (1991)
“But other changes have reminded us how much hatred and bitterness can still shape the course of our world. This general debate is the right occasion for us to see if we can trace a pattern in all these events and draw the right lessons for the future of our Organisation. First I would like to add my welcome to the seven new Members of the United Nations, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, the Republic of Korea and the Democratic Peoples' Republic of Korea, the Republic of the Marshall Islands and the Federated States of Micronesia. The presence of you all will enrich this Organisation. Mistrust between East and Meat kept Korea out of the United Nations for too long now the new approaches in international relations allow you to take the seats which should have been yours long ago.”
1991-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 46 (1991)
“Let me first congratulate you, Mr. Vice-President, and, through you, the President, on your appointments to the high offices you hold. He are very confident that throughout the proceedings of this session of the General Assembly you and the President will carry forward our deliberations with the customary good order and good sense, and we wish you well in this task. Last year almost of all of us speaking from this rostrum spoke of the dramatic pace of international events. Perhaps we all expected that after those dramas there would be a return to the normal tenor of diplomatic life. But, in fact, during the last 12 months change has continued with a speed and intensity that no one could have foreseen. Some of this change has been beneficial, flowing from the end of the cold war, which we all welcomed.”
1991-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 46 (1991)
“It is far too soon to sit back and relax to the sound of our own self-congratulation. There is a huge amount to be done, and all of it is complicated, and much of it is daunting. But I am more hopeful than before that the international community, through the United Nations, is equal to the tasks. First, as I have said and for the reasons I have given, the new order must succeed in getting Iraq out of Kuwait, otherwise it will be stillborn and no one will take it seriously. But once that is done - and that will happen - I believe the new order, in its different shapes and different guises, will grow. I believe it will flourish, and I believe it will consolidate, so that the last decade of ...Ms century, the decade which we are now entering, may well turn out to be the safest and the most successful.”
1990-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 45 (1990)
“But it seems to me that, when all these other problems are considered and our energies devoted to them, it remains true that war is still the chief scourge of mankind, and following in the wake of war, the tragedies of famine and of refugees. Because that is so, peace-making and peace-keeping will stay at the heart of worthwhile international activity. They are the core of our work here. I hope that the United Nations benefits will be extended to all the people in the world who seek membership, and here I am thinking in particular of the people of Korea. I have tried briefly to sketch some of our own approaches and attitudes to these tasks in Britain. We try to bring practical realism to the tasks which I have outlined this morning. We know that past achievement does not guarantee future progress.”
1990-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 45 (1990)
“We must not forget, because of these relatively new problems, the battle against poverty. Britain has announced in the last week important new proposals on debt relief for the poorest countries, building on the earlier British initiative which led to the agreement of the "Toronto terms" in 1988. We have proposed that the Paris Club should improve its existing concessions by cancelling two thirds of a country's entire bilateral official debt. Repayment of the remainder would be tailored to match each country's improving debt service capacity over 25 years. To provide additional breathing space, there would be no payments during the first five years of this period. The conditions for qualifying for this relief would remain broadly the same as for the Toronto scheme.”
1990-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 45 (1990)
“We believe the three existing drugs units should be unified into one streamlined structure under one senior full-time head, and I hope that at this session the General Assembly will be able' to take a decision along those lines. Then there are the hugely varied problems of our environment, the ozone layer, global warming, and many others. These are problems which have to be tackled, and quickly. But they can be tackled only if the world community acts together, and undoubtedly the United Nations and its agencies offer the best way of pooling these efforts. We make, and will continue to make, a serious contribution. It was yesterday in London that my Government published a White Paper outlining environmental policies for the 1990s, including the pledge to peg CO emissions by 2005 at 1990 levels.”
1990-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 45 (1990)
“The Secretary-General's mission o£ good offices in Cyprus continues, and it continues with our full support. It seems to us vital that all the parties should help him to reach a final settlement for that island. The United Nations must tackle the massive human problems which nation States and even regional groups cannot handle effectively by themselves. There is the menace of drugs, where the situation goes up and down, but on balance I believe continues to deteriorate. The work of the United Nations drugs units has been increasing to meet those demands, but more resources are required. Reform of the United Nations drug abuse control structure is essential.”
1990-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 45 (1990)
“And I am not thinking only of the Security Council resolutions over Kuwait, although for the reasons I have given, they are crucial. There are other examples. In Namibia, which under the auspices of the United Nations was able last year to achieve peaceful independence and free elections. In Cambodia, the five permanent members have co-operated closely. Discussions were tough at times. They will be on such occasions, but agreement was reached at the end of August on a framework for a comprehensive political settlement. And on 9 and 10 September the Cambodian parties themselves endorsed this framework. I am well aware that a great deal of hard work and argument remain on the Cambodian question, but there is now a hope, a flickering hope, where once despair seemed total.”
1990-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 45 (1990)
“But just as the security mechanisms of the United Nations were early casualties of the cold war, so they have already proved to be one of the first beneficiaries of the thaw. After many years in which political divisions among the permanent members weakened the force of Security Council resolutions, the new unity of purpose which we see, and which we saw again yesterday, has given the Council unprecedented vigour. I worked here for four years as a junior member of my country's delegation in the 1950s and spent many hours in this Hall, some of them weary hours, some of them hours which, at the time, I must confess I thought were fairly pointless. I never expected to see such a healthy change in this building as a result of the developments of the last year.”
1990-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 45 (1990)
“The CSCE process allows political dialogue and has established common principles ranging from respect for borders to human rights. There is transparency through confidence- and security-building measures. All of this gradually coming together in Europe has meant, and will mean I hope in the future, that States can increasingly trust each other and feel secure. This search for security is worldwide. The United Nations was formed to create and maintain such stability. Although the Charter of the United Nations was signed in San Francisco 45 years ago, the security mechanisms did not have the chance to work as intended. They were almost immediately frozen by the chill of the cold war.”
1990-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 45 (1990)
“And perhaps it is not too early to start thinking about how that long-term security can be achieved. Mr. Gianni De Michelis, speaking on behalf of the members of the European Community, put forward some thoughts on that subject, which I should like to echo. There is a need for a new and serious attempt to resolve the complex of Middle East disputes, including, se I have already mentioned, Palestine. There will also need to be a new security structure. This is 1990. It will be for the States in the region to decide how this should be done. It will be for them to take the initiative. Ho one will attempt to impose a system on them. But I believe the slow but steady progress of the process of the Conference on Security and Co-operation in Europe (CSCE) may be useful to them.”
1990-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 45 (1990)
“It is not that the nation states have disappeared; it is rather that new structures, like the European Community, are in place; it is rather that by statesmanship the poison of old disputes has been drained away. The friendship of France and Germany - of which Hans-Dietrich Genscher reminded us a few minutes ago - is an accomplished and welcome fact. Conflict over who should possess Alsace-Lorraine, for example is now impossible. We need to create that same certainty that conflict is impossible as regards all the other disputes which still persist to some extent in Europe. And not just in Europe. This is not just a European ambition. Once the Iraqis have been withdrawn from Kuwait, we will need to consider how lasting peace can be brought to the Middle East.”
1990-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 45 (1990)
“But I believe that every move we can make towards greater openness and honesty between nations makes it harder to envisage the kind of misunderstanding that could lead again to conflict in Europe. CFE, therefore, will be the stable footing on which the new European security structures can rest. Perhaps these structures are particularly important to Eastern Europe. Communism did not solve the old disputes in that part of our continent, but it put them to sleep. Now the imposed communist rule is disappearing and with it the anaesthetic which communist rule applied. We can hear again the murmur of some of those ancient disputes. Of course in Western Europe also used to have such disputes. French and Germans have fought each other three times in the last 120 years. Many of us were drawn in. No one would suppose that conceivable now.”
1990-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 45 (1990)
“If we succeed in negotiating that CFE treaty in Vienna, we will have brought about a rough military balance on the European continent; we will have removed the ability of all signatories to launch a surprise attack or to start large-scale offensive action. For the first time, the main instruments of physical force will be subject to detailed international law. Arms control and arms reduction, which have been a distant aspiration - the subject of many speeches over 40 years in this Hall - are now becoming a reality in Europe. Once the CFE treaty is signed, the summit in Paris can consider, and will consider, further ideas, including our own - about a new centre for reducing risks, about building confidence, about preventing conflict in Europe. Of course neither a centre nor a treaty will make conflict impossible.”
1990-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 45 (1990)
“Much of this was sketched out in the Helsinki Final Act IS years ago. I remember that at the time some of us looked a little warily at the high-sounding promises of that Final Act in Helsinki. But there are many brave individuals in the world today Kho can testify from their own experience that out of those promises of 1975, cut of those undertakings came effective pressure and eventual action to give them their liberty and their rights. How, a treaty on conventional armed forces in Europe (CFE) is a prerequisite - an indispensable prerequisite - for the CSCB summit, which we hope will be held in Paris in November, and for the CFE treaty hard, urgent work now lies ahead for those of us who are concerned.”
1990-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 45 (1990)
“In one we shall seek to improve the working of our institutions; in the other we shall consider plans for economic and monetary union. The steady British argument, repeated in meeting after meeting, is for a liberal, open, evolutionary approach in all these discussions. The third European structure is the CSCB. Here we are working to establish more firmly a common system of values, common standards for international behaviour among European States. That all sounds very high-minded. What does it mean in practice: I think it means some very specific things in practice. It means we need to underscore the protection of human rights. We need to guarantee the rule of law. We need to guarantee free elections. We need to work in general towards a common understanding of the fundamental freedom of individuals and the duties of government.”
1990-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 45 (1990)
“Some applications may be from members of the European Free Trade Association (EFTA); some may come from the newly democratic States of Central and Eastern Europe as they complete their transformation to free-market economies. It seems to me inconceivable that the Europe of Twelve which we have today could or would wish indefinitely to shut the door of membership against fully qualified European democracies which are anxious to join, whether they are now members of EFTA or whether they are in the centre or the south or the east of Europe. We are also deepening the Community by completing the single internal market to dismantle barriers to trade in goods and services and to movement of people. We are preparing two intergovernmental conferences, both of which will begin under the Italian presidency at the end of this year.”
1990-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 45 (1990)
“It was a mistake after the First World War that Americans went home - a mistake which we all regretted and repented. But the second decision of the NATO summit in July was to extend in a new way and with a new emphasis the hand of friendship and co-operation from MASO to the member countries of the Warsaw Pact, including of course the Soviet Union. As a result of the London summit, HAXO will remain but HAXO will change. The second key body in Europe is the European Community. Since 1985 the European Community has developed a new dynamism. Future development should be both wider and deeper. It should be wider because I would expect that applications from a number of other European States for full membership will be accepted before the end of the century. As you know, Mr. President, two are already to hand.”
1990-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 45 (1990)
“Where these groupings are successful they smooth the rough edges between nation states. They bring together by choice the efforts of Member States for a particular purpose, and I believe that that will endure. I would like to focus for a minute or two as a European on the three principal groups of this kind in Europe: the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (HATO), the European Co—unity, and the Conference on Security and Co-operation in Europe (CSCX). NATO held a summit in July in London and that summit took two fundamental decisions. We decided that NATO should remain as a defensive alliance with an integrated command which provides a framework for the stationing of United States and other forces in Germany. I believe that history shouts for the need for the American presence in Europe.”
1990-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 45 (1990)
“How we act now will define, will shape, the next decade. So it seems to me that we can be enthusiastic about the real progress which has been made in the world, provided that we are sober about the tasks still to be accomplished. I would like to look very briefly at the system of international relations in which we must work. The basic unit in the system, the basic unit in this Hall, the basic unit in our Organisation will continue to be the nation state - this nation-state system which emerged, I suppose, in its modern form in Europe in the nineteenth century; and in the twentieth century the colonial empires, first in Eastern Europe, then in Africa and Asia, were transformed into smaller nation states. It is not a perfect system; no one hero would claim that. But it has proved enduring and it has been supplemented by regional grouping.”
1990-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 45 (1990)
“Iraq's aggression dominates our thoughts about the Middle East, but we must not lose sight of other issues in the region. We must not lose night shove all of the need for a just solution, at last, to the Palestinian problem. We have no intention of forgetting that piece of unfinished business. But any solution to that problem will have to rest on respect for international law and respect for engagements entered into. That is why before that problem can be solved we must deal with the case of Iraq and Iraq's aggression. The chances of a more secure world order depend directly on the success of the international coalition which I have mentioned in reversing the occupation of Kuwait. The test is formidable; there can be no doubt about that. But the test cannot be evaded. This is a defining moment.”
1990-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 45 (1990)
“0f course, the aggression against Kuwait was not the first act of unjustified violence with which the United Nations has had to deal. Of course there have been many acts of aggression and injustice since 1945, and some of them, we must remember, remain partly or wholly uncorrected. But there was something about the simple brutality of the attack on Kuwait that put it in a category by itself. It was clear; it was complete. Every principle of international law was flouted. Only the most desultory attempt at an excuse was brought forward and then even that excuse was immediately abandoned. The Charter of the United Nations - our document - was held in complete contempt. It is for those reasons that an extraordinary and unique coalition of the international community has formed against the aggressor.”
1990-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 45 (1990)
“We need to remember that the great Chinese statesman Chou En-lai, when asked what he thought of the French Revolution, replied, "It is too soon to tell". I am not suggesting that we need 200 years for reflection, but I am sure we would be wise to proceed with caution and with caution, renewed determination. Certainly there has been great enthusiasm and great achievement; that is beyond gainsaying. But it does not mean that the new order is safely or completely in place or universally accepted. On the night o£ 2 August, President Saddam Hussein reminded us of reality. By invading and annexing Kuwait, he brought instant soberness to a world that was perhaps in some danger of believing that the millennium had arrived 10 years ahead of time.”
1990-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 45 (1990)
“In South Africa the State President, a white politician elected solely by a white minority, the leader of a party dedicated traditionally to apartheid, first released Mr. Nelson Mandela from prison and then sat down in friendly and determined negotiations with him. We must assert ourselves to help forward those two men and, more important, the peace process that they are now undertaking. But we should not be mesmerised by these happy changes. We must now knuckle down to the mundane task of making these changes a part of everyday life, of our habits of thought and our instinctive sense of reality. We cannot yet be sure of the permanence or the full consequences of the "velvet" revolutions around the world.”
1990-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 45 (1990)
“As one of the four wartime allies, we are proud of our part in helping forward that process. There was an immense amount to do when the 2 plus 4 process was first dreamt of in Ottawa in February, but we worked swiftly, thoroughly and as partners and the 2 plus 4 Agreement signed this month in Moscow was a first major achievement of the new world order. Last autumn the Foreign Minister of Poland, Mr. Skubissewski, who is here today, became the first representative of a democratic Government in Eastern Europe to address the General Assembly. That was an extraordinary change. Nobody then predicted that almost all the other countries in Eastern Europe would over so short a time begin by questioning and end by rejecting communism before this, the next session of the General Assembly. The change of course has not been confined to Europe.”
1990-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 45 (1990)
“Usually, I suppose, in world affairs surprises are unwelcome. But last year's surprises were almost all good news. Less than a year ago, President Gorbachev told the Government of the German Democratic Republic that time would not forgive those who came too late. One month later the Berlin Nail was torn down. Mow, on 3 October, the German people will reunite in peace and democracy. We have just heard an eloquent analysis and commitment from the Foreign Minister of the Federal Republic of Germany, Mr. Hans Dietrich Genscher, on that subject. I would simply add on behalf of the United Kingdom that on that day, 3 October, we shall share wholeheartedly the happiness of the German people. It will be a big day, of course, for Germany; a big day and a welcome day for Europe and for the rest of the world.”
1990-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 45 (1990)
“May I start by congratulating you most warmly, Sir, on your election to the presidency of the General Assembly and by paying tribute to your predecessor, Mr. Joseph Garba. We are already accustomed to the calm and authoritative way in which you conduct our discussions. I should like also to pay a very warm tribute to the Secretary-General. We have benefited greatly from his wisdom and energy during this last year, and, as he knows, we will rely on them perhaps even more enthusiastically in the time ahead. What a contrast there is between the General Assembly today and that of a year ago. In 12 months we have seen the passing of an old and unmoored order. The end of last year, 1989, was a time of great excitement. We were lucky to witness that rare happening: a peaceful revolution.”
1990-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 45 (1990)