1.
GV United Nations Assembly
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2.
SV Mr. Rajaratnam speaking. (SOUND)
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TRANSCRIPT: SINGAPORE FOREIGN MINISTER (SEQ. 2): "Small powers can acquire a significant, a significance and involve considerations of big power prestige which may make it impossible for a major power to accept defeat even in limited wars. But there is little evidence at the present time to show that the big powers are convinced of this. For the immediate future small countries would increasingly be made the battleground for big power conflicts Great powers to be safe wars."




Initials BB/1755 TA/ML/BB/1756



Script is copyright Reuters Limited. All rights reserved

Background: Singapore warned the United Nations General Assembly on Monday (11 October) of the prospect of a "new tripolar war" with the entry of the People's Republic of China into the U.N., and of a "multipolar war" later on when Japan and a united Western Europe joined the great power struggle.

Singapore's Foreign Minister, Mr. S. Rajaratnam, said that the United Nations politics would be dominated by not two major powers--the United States and the Soviet Union--but by three. "This has great implications for the small nations, in particular those of the third world," he said.