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198 AFRICA MUST UNITE

with an issue arising from the conflict between the two great
power blocs of East and West, with which the peace of the world
is dangerously tied up. These two blocs are each committed to its
own political and economic ideology. Both are militarily power­
ful, and each is suspicious of the thoughts and actions of the
other. The failure to reach any agreement over such fundam ental
issues as disarmament and the testing of nuclear weapons seems
to hold out little hope for the future.
A new and vigorous approach to the problem of peace and war
is needed. The time has come wrhen the destiny of mankind
should cease to hang so dangerously on the aims and ambitions
of the great powers. In recent years I have travelled extensively
in America, in the Soviet Union, in Europe, India and China,
where I have spoken to men and women in all walks of life.
Everywhere, I have noticed a deep longing for peace. This
universal, but often inarticulate, desire for peace must find
expression and exert its proper influence on the conduct of
world affairs. For peace is indivisible. Disagreement between
East and West, for example over Laos or Berlin, can threaten the
security of the whole of the rest of the world.
These were the kind of considerations behind the Belgrade
Conference of the Non-Aligned Countries, held in September
1961, which 25 countries1 attended. At Belgrade, we did not
intend to form a third power bloc, but we did hope by our
solidarity to constitute ourselves into a distinct moral force
which might hold the balance of power between East and West
in the cause of peace.
At that time the United States was spending an estimated
$47,966 million a year on defence and armaments alone, more
than half the entire national budget. In i960 the Soviet Union
spent some 96,100 million roubles on defence, out of a national
budget of 745,800 million roubles. In a declaration issued at the
end of the Belgrade Conference, the United Nations was asked
to convene either a special session of the General Assembly

1 Afghanistan, Algeria, Burma, Cambodia, Ceylon, Congo, Cuba, Cyprus,
Ethiopia, Ghana, Guinea, India, Indonesia, Iraq, Lebanon, Mali, Morocco,
Nepal, Saudi Arabia, Somalia, Sudan, Tunisia, United Arab Republic,
Yemen and Yugoslavia. There were observers from Brazil, Bolivia, and
Ecuador.