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168 General Assembly-c-Iwenty-nlnth Session-Plenary Meetings

I have spoken of the profound interest or the President of the Philippines in a new international economic order. Committed as we are to expanded development and focusing all resources on the achievement of this objective, the Philippines under the New Society has been inevitably affected by the world-wide economic upheavals. Only through the most strenuous efforts has it been able to approximate the dramatic improvements achieved through drastic economic restructuring in the first year of our New Society. Our stake in the improvement of the world economic climate is therefore great, for it can be of decisive importance in our pursuit of the accelerated time-table for national development. 92.

93. Like most developing countries, the Philippines has been affected by the sharp increases in import prices, raising the probability of a deficit in our balance-of-payments position. Inflation, though our rate is among the most moderate in South-East Asia, has prevented further improvement in living standards without, however, causing a real decline. 94. Despite the expected difficulties, however, the gross national product of the Philippines increased by 5.8 per cent in the first eight months of 1974, a figure which is higher than in previous years, with the exception of 1973. Last year the Philippines was in the upper third in the roll of developing countries which exceeded the target growth rate set by the International Development Strategy for the Second United Nations Development Decade [resolution 2626 (XXV)] in the field of manufactures. 95. As a result of measures taken to prevent massive rice shortages caused by typhoons, the Philippines increased its grain production by 12 per cent, short of self-sufficiency, but enough to avert widespread shortages in the event of expected natural calamities.

Overall food production, however, is at a record level, the Philippines being one of only four Asian countries to show this remarkable performance in a year of falling production in most developing regions.

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97. In another field, the Philippines is among the fortunate few to exceed the amount of $200 million in gains in international reserves. But the Philippines is under no illusion that its present generally favourable situation will persist if the world-wide economic situation continues to deteriorate. Nor can it dissociate itself from the plight of other, poorer countries which are now rapidly approaching the point of irreversible descent into anarchy and chaos caused by extreme poverty. Whether we wish it or not, their fate instils an awful sense of foreboding in the entire human community.

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99. It is in this context that we view the arms race and the ever-increasing amounts was ted in its pursuit as a terrible comment on our sense of human values. It bespeaks a deadening of the finer impulses of man that he should place the development of weapons of destruction on a far higher scale of priority than the fulfilment of his most basic requirements.

Mr. Macovescu (Romania), Vice-President, took the Chair.

tuo. Nor is this race for weapons confined to t~ great Powers, for the supply of arms to the smaller Powers has increased at an unprecedented rate thereby increasing the danger of conventional war; which nevertheless always carry the risk of involVing the great Powers. 101. An equally disturbing development is the dangerous proliferation of nuclear weapons. The capability for manufacturing them is no longer the exclusive monopoly of the rich, industrialized coun_ tries. This suggests that the threshold of nuclear danger has been lowered to a degree that may in the near future prove dangerous to world peace and security. That there should be nations whose popula. tions are starving and afflicted by famine but that are producing nuclear arms is indeed a sad comrnen, tary on the world today. 102. In the light of the foregoing developments, the United Nations should begin seriously to Consider fresh initiatives to moderate the runaway arms race, halt nuclear proliferation and ban test explo. sions completely. 103. These matters acquire particular significance at a time when the Middle East problem still carries the potential for renewed conflict and at a time when agreement has yet to be reached on the tragic war in Cyprus. On the Middle East question, we of the Philippine delegation reiterate our view that a just solution should be based on the relevant U nited Nations resolutions calling on Israel to withdraw from all occupied territories. 104. Another important aspect of the Middle East problem, which is basic to its solution, is the question of the Palestinian people. Having no wish at this time to reopen a generation-old debate, I shall confine myself to quoting my original intervention in the Assembly on the same subject in 1947, when the sessions were being held at Flushing Meadows. I said then: "We have assessed the legal arguments and found that they are not the decisive factors in shaping a just and practical solution. Whatever the weight we might choose to assign to the arguments of the one side or the other, it is clear to the Philippine Government that the rights conferred by mandatory power, even if subsequently confirmed by an international agreement, do not vitiate the' primordial right of a people to determine the political future and to preserve the territorial integrity of its native land." 105. Continuing, I said that the issue was primarily moral and that the enforcement of the partition policy was-and I quote again-"repugnant to the valid nationalist aspirations of the people of Palestine"." 106. Because the shape of the problem has been modified in the intervening years, the Philippines shall, against this background, speak on this subject again at an appropriate time in this Assembly. 107. Turning to our part of the world, the spirit of the Shanghai communique is alive in Asia, and a rearrangement in the balance of forces on its basis has ensued quietly and without fanfare. The apparent stability in the region has encouraged diplomatic activity, tending further to cement existing relationships. Prime Minister Tanaka of Japan visited South-

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