21021957 Text of the Speech made by Mr. Sobolev (Union of Soviet Socialist Republics) in the Security. Council Meeting No. 774 held on 21 February 1957

Text of the Speech made by Mr. Sobolev (Union of Soviet Socialist Republics) in the Security. Council Meeting No. 774 held on 21 February 1957

I should like to make a few comments on the draft resolution proposed by the delegations of Australia, the United Kingdom and the United States [S/3792 and Corr. 1].

In view of our general position on the Kashmir problem, which we have already explained in the Security Council, we accept the basic idea of this draft resolution, which is that the President of the Security Council should be requested to visit India and Pakistan and to negotiate with the Governments of those countries with a view to finding a solution of the Kashmir problem acceptable to both sides.

The text of the three Power draft resolution is superior to the original four-Power draft [S/3787] Under the terms of the revised draft, the President of the Security Council will, in the exercise of his task, not be hampered by provisions which have proved unacceptable to one of the parties and would doom his mission to failure. We are hound to note that the reference to previous Council resolutions in the three-power draft resolution may render Mr. Jarring's negotiations with the Governments of India and Pakistan more difficult; our present attitude should not be based on resolutions adopted many years ago but on the realities of the international situation and the existing conditions in the region concerned.

It must not be forgotten that our problem is the pacific settlement of the Kashmir question in keeping with Chapter VI of the United Nations Charter, which provides for the pacific settlement of disputes and excludes any measures of compulsion and any attempt to impose on one of the parties solutions unacceptable to it, The reference to previous Council decisions which, as will be readily understood, are not acceptable to the Government of India, may therefore render the task entrusted to the president more difficult.

We would draw attention to the circumstances in which the representatives of the United States, the United Kingdom and Australia introduced their new draft resolution. In the course of the previous discussions the delegations of those countries rejected the amendments proposed by the Soviet Union and by Colombia to the four-Power draft resolution. In effect, these delegations thus refused to co-operate in the preparation of an acceptable Security Council resolution capable of promoting a solution of the Kashmir problem. They refused to take into account the legitimate interests of one of the parties. Thus the impression was created that the sponsors of the four-Power draft did not wish to take India's position into consideration and that they are seeking to impose on India a decision unacceptable to any sovereign State.

In their statements, the representatives of the United States, the United Kingdom and Australia attempted to present the Soviet position in an unfavourable light, to throw doubt on the sincerity of the Soviet delegation's desire to find a just settlement of the Kashmir problem. There is no need to refute such institutions. The Soviet delegation is not unduly concerned at the clamour with which the representatives of the Western Powers usually greet the casting of our vote. In the eyes of all those who sincerely wish for the peaceful settlement of unresolved international problems, talk about the alleged misuse of the veto cannot conceal the fact that our delegation has taken up a position of justice, that it always advocates decisions in keeping with the interests of the peoples concerned. and with the principles of the United Nations Charter.

The method of mechanically voting in favour of resolutions which are known to be unacceptable to one of the parties concerned is unsuitable for the work of the Security Council, particularly in cases concerning the peaceful settlement of a problem.

In conclusion, I should like to say that the delegation of the Soviet Union, while discerning serious shortcomings in the three-Power draft resolution, will not oppose its adoption, in the sincere hope that the conversations of the President of the Security Council with the Governments of India and Pakistan may yield a positive result and lead to the resumption of direct negotiations between the two Governments concerned.

The Soviet delegation will abstain in the vote on the draft resolution.