Text of the Speech made by Mr. Fedorenko (Union of Soviet Socialist Republics) in the Security Council Meeting No. 1247 held on 25 October 1965

Text of the Speech made by Mr. Fedorenko (Union of Soviet Socialist Republics) in the Security Council Meeting No. 1247 held on 25 October 1965

The Security Council is today again considering the situation that has arisen as the result of the conflict between India and Pakistan. The Soviet Union, which maintains friendly ties with the peoples of India and Pakistan, has repeatedly expressed serious concern over this armed conflict between India and Pakistan, its main desire being to see peace restored between two of the greatest Powers in Asia.

The Soviet Union's position on the Indo-Pakistan conflict. has been quite clear from the very beginning. We have been. deeply grieved by the outbreak of the conflict and by the blood shed it has entailed.

We should like to stress again that this conflict is not in the interests of the peoples of either India or Pakistan. Its continuation would threaten the peace of the world and would impair the solidarity of the forces which are for peace, national independence and progress. That is why the Soviet Union, from the very first, has urgently appealed, both in its messages to the Governments of India and Pakistan and in the discussion of the matter in the Security Council, for the prompt cession of fratricidal bloodshed and an immediate peaceful settlement of the dispute between India and Pakistan.

We welcomed the agreement between the two sides-India and Pakistan-on a cease-fire with great satisfaction. In this one must see, first of all, a demonstration on the part of the statesmen of India and Pakistan of due realism, restraint and awareness of the dire consequences of a further continuation of the armed conflict.

The Security Council has played the role assigned to it under the Charter of our Organisation in connection with the armed conflict between India and Pakistan. The positive results that have been achieved, namely, the agreement of the parties of a cease-fire, are of course important, but only a first step. Now the main task is to consolidate the cease-fire, to ensure strict and scrupulous observance of the cease-fire agreement and to take the next step towards strengthening peace between India and Pakistan. The withdrawal by both sides of their troops and all their armed personnel from the positions they occupied up to 5 August 1965, as provided for in the Council's resolutions, must proceed more rapidly.

These are the questions that must be settled first, these are the questions to which attention must be given in the situation that has now arisen.

The Soviet Union, as everyone will remember, supported the resolutions adopted by the Security Council on the armed conflict between India and Pakistan. These resolutions are an essential factor in the restoration of normal relations between India and Pakistan. And the Soviet Union has constantly called for, and calls for, strict compliance with the Council's resolutions.

Regarding the practical application of these resolutions, there arises a question which involves matters of principles. The Soviet delegation considers it necessary to draw the Council's attention to the fact that the action taken by the Secretary General with regard to the United Nations observers in India and Pakistan following the adoption of resolutions 210 (1965) and 211 (1965) of 6 and 20 September 1965 is at variance with the provisions of the Charter, under which only the Security Council is competent to take the necessary decisions on all specific matters connected with United Nations observers, namely, their functions, number, command, the financing of their activities and so on. Meanwhile, all these questions are being settled outside the Security Council, whose members are merely informed about measures that have already been taken. This situation is, of course, abnormal and, as we have noted, at variance with the Charter.

We consider it necessary to stress particularly that the Council should set a definite time-limit for the stay of the United Nations observers in India and Pakistan, which it is our firm conviction should be strictly limited to three months. Those are the views we wished to express at this stage in Council's work. In view of the late hour and on the usual understanding, I shall not insist on the consecutive interpretation of my statement into the languages.