Remarks to the International Telecommunications Satellite Consortium Plenipotentiary Conference.

Mr. Secretary of State, Your Exeellencies, the members of the diplomatic corps, and ladies and gentlemen:

I am very honored to participate in this ceremony and briefly to have the opportunity, first, to express appreciation to all of those who have worked for 27 months on this project, and to add to the con-, gratulations that you have just received from the Secretary of State for the culmination of 27 months of work.

Seventy-nine nations¹ have agreed to the document, which I understand will be initialed finally by the representatives of those nations at a later time. For 79 nations to agree on anything is a major accomplishment. For 79 nations to agree in an area that is new--new in terms of a scientific breakthrough, new in terms of not being as predictable as most of those things that we negotiate about for that kind of an agreement to be worked out is an enormous tribute to the men and women who represented their countries and other organizations in negotiating the agreement.

¹Of the 79 member states, the vote was: 73 approved, o opposed, 4 abstained, 1 absent, 1 not registered at the Conference.

Also, it should be pointed out that I have been here in the State Department Auditorium on several occasions for participating in treaties and other signing ceremonies. This one is particularly unique because not only have 79 governments agreed to it; in addition to that, at the operating level, as I understand it, a document has been agreed to that will affect all of the operating agencies in the various nations. Those agencies are nat all the same. They take a different form; for example, Comsat in the United States, and others in other countries. They are not the same in each country.

To bring the basically commercial operating agencies--although many of them are government entities--to bring them together in an agreement at the same time that the governments agree is indeed an historic and unique accomplishment, and is an indication of what can happen in the future in these exciting areas where breakthroughs are occurring.

I say these things because I know that when you have met here and in other places, you probably wonder why it is that INTELSAT doesn't make the headlines. It is not always on the first page; sometimes it is not even in the paper at all when you have an important meeting.

I can simply say that those of us at the highest levels of government in all countries know how important your work is. We realize that this is a very unique and vital breakthrough in communications between nations and among nations, as well as in communications in the technical sense, which you have negotiated.

So our congratulations go to you who have labored so long and so hard in a difficult field, and finally have reached agreements after over 2 years.

Now a word about what this can mean to the future.

You will have noted that yesterday a joint announcement was made by the Government of the United States and the Government of the Soviet Union indicating a commitment by the leaders at the highest level in both countries to work toward limitation of nuclear arms, both in the defensive and in the offensive areas, and to work toward an agreement in this field to be implemented sometime this year.

As I pointed out in making that announcement, some very intensive negotiations now will have to take place to achieve our goal; but we are hopeful that it will be achieved because of the interest and the commitment that now has been expressed at the very highest levels in both governments.

Let me relate that kind of statement, and the agreement that we trust will follow from it, to the work that you have here.

We, as sophisticates in the field of international affairs--and I guess we can describe ourselves as that--those who have participated in this conference and others of us who have worked in these areas for some time, know that there will always be differences between nations, differences that will not be resolved. There will always be competition between nations, and that competition, if it is peaceful, can be constructive rather than destructive.

What is important is for us to set up those patterns and those processes whereby differences between nations that cannot be resolved will not result in the use of arms or military force. We are making progress in that direction, progress in many areas of the world.

We trust that we can be living in a world where there will be the absence of war, in which we can move in peaceful ways to discuss differences, recognizing always that we are not going to resolve all differences. It will never be that kind of a world. It will never be that kind of a nation, because people do have differences, and they cannot always resolve them.

But there is one thing we can also be sure of: There are many differences in the world which exist today, not because of basic vital interests which are irreconcilable, but simply because of lack of information, because of ignorance, because the people or the governments of one part of the world do not really know the people or the governments of the other part of the world.

So as you can well see, this kind of breakthrough, through which it will be possible to have instant communication around the world, will reduce the ignorance. It will increase the information. It will reduce those areas of difference which exist because of ignorance and lack of information to a minimum.

This has never been true in the world before. This does not mean that this is the total answer to the problem of peace in the world, because as I have indicated, and as all of you know, there are always going to be certain other areas where all information will be available to all sides, and there still may not be agreement; there will still be differences.

But at last, now, we have the chance, through what you have done, to close completely the information gap. That is what you have done. That is what you have contributed.

The Government of the United States, the people of the United States, the governments of all your countries and of the whole world are grateful to you for your work and what you have done. As you conclude your work, I wish you the very best on your journeys as you return to your home countries. I hope that in the future at some time I may be able to speak to you by satellite.