Final Communiqué
16-18 November 1983
Vienna, Austria
1. Recognizing that world peace is being threatened on two
fronts, the politico-military and the economic, the
InterAction Council agreed to attach high priority to
three issues:
(a) The promotion of peace and disarmament;
(b) The revitalization of the world economy, in particular
by way of lowering interest rates and dealing with the
problems of external debt;
(c) The strengthening of co-operation for development.
2. The InterAction Council of former Heads of Government
had an intensive and frank exchange of views on a number
of critical issues concerning peace and development. The
questions of disarmament, of rising tensions in the world,
and of the revitalization of the world economy were
considered at some length.
3. Members of the Council expressed their conviction that
the world is now threatened by the most dangerous
situation it has faced since the end of the Second World
War.
4. The Council appealed to the world community to respect
sovereignty and pluralism and to refrain from all forms of
intervention in the affairs of other nations.
I. Peace and Disarmament
5. The members of the InterAction Council, particularly
preoccupied with the potential dangers inherent in all
kinds of armaments in Europe and in other regions, which
endanger peace and security in the entire world, decided
to appeal to the parties involved in arms control and
reduction talks, particularly those currently being
conducted in Geneva, to make every effort to reach
effective agreement and, in the interest of humanity, to
avoid a breakdown in these talks.
6. The appeal of the Council extends to all the nations of
the world to halt the expansion of, and to initiate
effective measures to reduce the enormous stockpiles of
conventional and nuclear weapons, which now exist in
virtually every region of the world.
7. The Council concluded that peace would be enormously
strengthened if a situation could be achieved in which
there were no medium-range missiles in Europe and in other
parts of the world.
8. Members of the InterAction Council reviewed various
centres of tension in the world and expressed their
profound concern at the developments in the Middle East,
Asia, Central America and the Caribbean, where small
countries are involved in conflicts which reflect, and are
exacerbated by, the interests of distant powers.
9. Peace in these and other parts of the world can be
restored only if justice, freedom and human rights
prevail. In this context, members of the InterAction
Council deplored the despicable system of apartheid as a
continuous source of tension and injustice.
10. The Council considers it especially important that the
export of weapons and armaments be controlled,
particularly those destined to developing countries. While
benefitting the economies of the exporting countries,
these exports may threaten the security of the receiving
countries and directly or indirectly inhibit their
economic development and social progress.
11. To avoid global tragedy, which could be triggered by
minor and accidental incidents, the Council agreed upon
the need to diminish the risks through effective measures
and strengthened communication at the highest political
levels.
12. The InterAction Council requests its Executive
Committee to take those measures it deems necessary and
appropriate which might help ease tensions, and to involve
all members of the Council in such activities.
II. Revitalization of the World Economy
13. The participants in the meeting unanimously recognized
that world peace is also threatened on the economic front.
Many of the countries of the world are facing recession
with diminished productive capacities, reduced investment
and high levels of unemployment. Developing countries are
in a position of unprecedented difficulty.
14. The Council considers that the revitalization of the
world economy is seriously restrained by the effects of
the current high levels of real interest rates. These, in
turn, are to a considerable extent the result of
continuing and substantial public sector deficits in some
major developed countries. The Council, therefore, calls
on those developed countries which play a predominant role
in world economic affairs to concert their economic and
monetary policies and to reduce their deficits so as to
lower the current high levels of interest rates and
improve the stability and alignment of exchange rates.
15. The InterAction Council expressed serious concern at
the position of developing countries, whose international
debt has grown significantly in recent years. The burden
of debt is causing grave problems for many developing
countries and, under present circumstances, the danger of
default is imminent. If the major debtor countries from
the developing world should default, this would have major
implications for the international financial and banking
systems. Such a development could lead to a breakdown as
serious as that which occurred in the 1930s. The
InterAction Council draws attention to the fact that the
mandate of the International Monetary Fund as derived from
its Articles of Agreement, inadequate access to markets
and adverse movements in the terms of trade experienced by
developing countries, and the continuation of the
developed countries' deficits have all contributed to this
situation. The structural imbalances which underlie this
situation require most urgent attention.
16. The InterAction Council, therefore, intends to propose
short-, medium- and long-term measures to resolve the
problems of developing country debt. The Council calls
for:
(a) Urgent measures to meet the immediate debt problems of
developing debtor nations through such measures, as, inter
alia, a short-term moratorium where necessary, the
reduction of effective interest rates, rearranged payments
schedules and the cancellation of debt in whole or in
part, and
(b) An urgent increase in the resources of the
International Monetary Fund and more appropriate IMF
conditionality, which must be more sensitive to the social
and political situations and development strategies of the
developing countries.
17. The period of grace which would be achieved through
the adoption of the above measures should be used to
promote the convening of a major international monetary
conference, not later than 1984, to examine and propose
constructive measures to:
(a) Shift attention from crisis management, which treats
the symptoms of economic crisis, to a more integrated
approach which must be part of the long-term restructuring
of the pattern of international economic relations, and
(b) Correlate the issues of trade and access to markets,
the debt of developing countries, the internal deficits of
the industrialized nations and stabilization of exchange
rates among major economic groupings.
18. The Council noted that proposals to foster free trade
often failed because of opposition by one or several
countries. Therefore, the Council intends to give priority
attention to a new code against protectionism covering
industrial goods, agricultural goods and services, the
combination of which is not adequately covered by existing
arrangements. The code would be open to interested nations
and designed both to encourage co-operation among those
nations that are prepared to promote freer trade and to
remove the right of veto of major powers as has existed in
the past multilateral trade negotiations.
III. Development and Population
19. The Council intends to promote the accelerated
development of the developing countries. It will seek,
through missions, consultations, public relations
activities and other means, to increase and sustain the
flows of financial and other resources to developing
countries through both public and private channels, with
particular emphasis on the transfer of science and
technology. This will require sustained efforts by the
Council to enhance public awareness in some key developed
countries of the seriousness and urgency of development
problems and of the essential common interests of
developing and developed countries. The Council will also
pay particular attention to the critical world population
problem.
20. The Council decided, in view of the vital importance
of official development assistance to the least developed
countries, which most severely suffer from poverty, hunger
and natural disasters, to undertake consultations with
donor governments aimed at encouraging a rapid increase in
concessional assistance to these countries, together with
other measures to increase their earnings and broaden
their sources of finance.
21. The Council agreed to undertake, after further
preparation, a series of broadly-based consultations in
developing and developed countries to gradually define and
gain support for a major long-term programme of increased
development co-operation. This programme will require the
full participation of developing and developed countries,
in a coherent and sustained effort for at least ten years,
to promote self-sustaining economic growth in the
developing countries, respecting their particular needs
and objectives, and thus enabling them to participate
positively in the revitalization of the world economy as a
whole.
IV. The Role of the United Nations
22. The Council reaffirmed its conviction that the United
Nations Organization has a critically important role to
play in the examination and solution of the major issues
confronting humanity - peace, disarmament and world
development.