There is also an urgent need to address conventional disarmament. Competition among neighbours in this can have, indeed has had, disastrous consequences. The work of the Ad Hoc Committee on the Indian Ocean must resume, with all States participating. We must possible. Recent events have concentrate on holding the conference in Colombo as soon as poignantly demonstrated that the roots of conflict most often lie in economic ,causes. Over past years, there has been growing anxiety about the decline in the course of development. Substantive factors and attitudes combined to aggravate the situation. Mutual accusations and sterile debate between the developed and the developing worlds led to stagnation and even to deterioration in the situation in the latter. The economic and technological gap between the rich and the poor countries widened. Many developing countries tried to follow the prescription for structural adjustment, at great cost and with great hardship. Collapsing commodity price structures, volatile exchange rates, the shrinkage of aid in real terms, growing indebtedness and diminishing purchasing power threaten to suffocate the developing economies. EF/lO A/45/PV.10 38 (President Ershad) Against this backdrop, we welcome the results of the eighteenth special session of the General Assembly, which forged a new global consensus on ways to promote meaningful co-operation. There are substantial opportunities to spell Out the elements of this consensus in formulating the International Development Strategy for the current decade, to be adopted by the General Assembly this session. The results of the recently held Second United Nations Conference on the Least Developed Countries will be a key supplementary factor. The outcome of the Conference, though falling short of expectations, was in many ways a success. Here I must commend the very positive role played by President Mitterrand and his great country, France. On the critical issues of increased resource flows, external 
**Analysis**
The text primarily focuses on the economic and development aspects of international relations, highlighting the issues of economic inequality, debt, and cooperation between developed and developing countries. It also mentions the results of a conference on the Least Developed Countries, which suggests that the text is concerned with the economic and social development of these countries.

**Category**
Economic development, International trade