Statement of the Prime Minister George Price on Belize's Admission to the UN 1981

[0:00]Mr. President, Mr. Secretary General, distinguished delegates, your excellencies. Thank you, Mr. President for your kind words. We share the congratulations extended to you on your election as President of the 36th General Assembly of the United Nations. The State and people of believes, thank you for the welcome and assurances we have received in the United Nations, and in particular, the kind statements of the representatives of the regional groups. We thank the representatives of the United Kingdom for the welcome and for setting right the record, and for the welcome and assurances of the host country, the United States of America. We thank representatives of Mexico, our nearest neighbor, also Nicaragua and our Central American nations, of Guyana, a fellow member of the Caribbean community and of Venezuela, a state of the Caribbean basin. Belize has attained its independence on September 21st, 1981, and today becomes the 156th member of the international community. Please accept the deepest gratitude of the people and government of believes for this solid support. As we become a member of the world community, we hear the question asked, what is believes and its people? And how will they fit among you? In reply, Belize is a Caribbean and Central American nation, which works and lives a revolution that is peaceful, constructive, new, progressive, and belizean. It is our own with all our national attributes, land, and resources. Belize is a people with all attributes of nationhood, having one flag, one government, one constitution. Our mind imbu the democratic process. Our hand works the mixed economy. Our heart beats with social justice and our soul cherishes the spirit. Mr. President, distinguished delegates, believes accepts the duties and obligations of the United Nations Charter, and we live in peace and friendship with our neighbors in the Americas and in the world. We remain steadfast in our determination to secure our independence with all our territory intact, and we continue our work, not only to build believes, but to build believes to yet greater levels of economic growth and social progress. And in doing so, to remove causes of conflict and to cooperate in the economic development of the region with all our neighbors in friendship, harmony and peace, but with the equal status as a sovereign nation. There is a threat to this peace because a neighbor to whom we extend the hand of friendship and the offer of economic regional cooperation has not responded yet to our invitation. Yet we stand ready to pursue the formula for peace agreed upon by the United Kingdom, Guatemala, and believes, in a determined endeavor to search for a peaceful solution of the dispute between the United Kingdom and Guatemala. Without prejudice to our sovereignty and territorial integrity, to all who help bring believes to a secure independence with all its territory, and to membership of the United Nations, we extend our deepest thanks. Believes with the help of God and the support of the people, will stand upright and will do its duty to bring peace, stability and prosperity to our region and to the wider circles of our planet Earth.