The indebtedness of developing countries has exceeded U.S. $ 150 billion, with repayments increasing every year. Developing countries now face the dilemma of either not repaying their debts or suspending altogether the process and tempo of their national development. This problem can be resolved only if the international community as a whole draws up mutually agreed norms for affording realistic and immediate relief to debtor countries. Even a five percent reduction in the military budgets of developed countries could facilitate the transfer of much needed resources and open for two-thirds of mankind vast opportunities for development.
Mutuality of Interests
The survival of mankind in all its many-splendoured diversity depends on planned expansion of areas of equitable interdependence. To that end we need to evolve a global ethic, a code of conduct and a set of principles for managing interdependence for the purpose of sustaining economic development. We need the sort of interdependence among Nation-States that preserves their sovereignty, transcends political ideologies, harmonises the actions of States for common ends, strengthens the weak and prevents their exploitation by the strong, prohibits policies which beggar one's neighbour, and envisages an equal share in decision-making processes.
Recognition of this mutuality of interests and of the need to rearrange the present economic system on a more equitable basis should influence the attitudes of the affluent countries in such a manner that their people respond readily and positively to the modest national objectives of developing countries. Unfortunately, the response of the developed countries so far indicates a certain wavering of political will to meet the full dimension of the challenges and opportunities inherent in the present situation, as evidenced by the slow progress made by the Paris Conference. Perhaps fear of the unknown future, or reluctance to reduce wasteful consumption, is at the root of their inadequate response.
Surely, they must realise that there can be no freezing of the status quo of dependence between the developed and developing countries. The present situation must inevitably evolve into a new order of equitable interdependence and mutual benefit. Self-serving short term remedies will not meet the long term requirements of the present situation. So far as the developing countries are concerned, they should be prepared to safeguard their own interests through a higher level of individual and collective self-reliance as well as mutual co-operation.
The strength of the developing countries rests, of course, entirely on their own unity and their sense of purpose. Theirs is not the strength that comes from numbers alone but rather from the shared awareness that they form the backbone of peace-loving nations. They represent not only the majority of the nation-states of the world but also the majority of the world's population. Their aspirations, therefore, acquire a special meaning for mankind's future, for they represent the hard core of suffering humanity. Their collective position should make an appropriate impact on the attitudes of developed countries and their peoples.
As the United Nations enters the fourth decade of its existence I would like to recall in conclusion the words of our former Prime Minister, Jawaharlal Nehru who said on the first day of our independence: "Peace is said to be indivisible, so is prosperity and so also is disaster in a world that can no longer be split into isolated fragments."