Page:United Nations Security Council Meeting Record 2932.pdf/12

RG/8 16 The President: I thank the representative of the United States for the kind words he addressed to me.

Mr. Peñalosa (Colombia) (interpretation from Spanish): On behalf of my delegation, I should like to congratulate you, Sir, on your assumption of the presidency of the Security Council for the month of August. I also express our thanks to Ambassador Razali for the outstanding job he did as President of the Security Council last month.

The position taken by the Colombian Government over more than a century in support of the principle of non-interference in the internal affairs of other States is well known. Whatever the circumstances, we have always opposed the use of force and, indeed, the very threat of use of force, regardless of excuses or arguments employed to justify the use of force. We are convinced that, particularly in the near future, the sovereignty and self-determination of small States, which make up the majority of Members of the United Nations, will be jeopardized if in one fashion or another we were to condone the use of force to intervene in the internal affairs of other States.

That is why, for the same reasons we condemned the invasion of Panama in December, we are now co-sponsoring the draft resolution before the Council, a text which condemns the intervention in Kuwait.

The President: I thank the representative of Colombia for the kind words he addressed to me.

Mr. Fortier (Canada): May I begin by congratulating you, Sir, on your assumption of the presidency and wishing you well during the month of August. I should also like to thank our colleague, the Ambassador of Malaysia, for his stellar performance during the month of July.

Our presence here this morning at this early hour is evidence of the deep concern of the members of this Council and the international community about the