which have helped them in the past decade. It will also provide us with an opportunity to adapt a new collective strategy for development to the special needs of these countries. I have in mind also that new strategy itself, which sh·ould be adopted at the next session of the General Assembly and for which the current preparations will need a few simple but firm political guidelines. These should help us to avoid the frustration of a new strategy that would be merely a catalogue of wishes. Lastly, I must not fail to mention the eighth meeting of the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development in 1991 and the 1992 conference on the ) environment and developnent; both will be occasions for reaffirming a political agreement on the content of actions for development at the end of the century. Our meeting today provides an opportunity for me to make one observation: the situations in regard to underdevelopment have becone roore dissimilar. But the recent changes in one part of the world are grounds for hoping that the United Nations is moving closer to consensus in the spirit of universality which it should have. We hope so because the time has come not only to devise new instruments to meet challenges, which, unfortunately, have long confronted us but also to take up the new challenges of the coming decade. The changes in one part of the European continent should facilitate agreement on analyses of underdevelopment, and therefore on the aid which the countries of JVM/12 A/S-18/PV.2 53 (Mr. Pelletier, France) the North can provide to those of the South. Recent accessions to membership in certain international bodies confirm this positive development. The improvement in the international climate should, first of all, benefit the 
**Analysis**
The text discusses the United Nations' efforts to address underdevelopment and the need for a new collective strategy for development. It mentions specific conferences and meetings, such as the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development and the conference on the environment and development, which suggests a focus on international cooperation and development. The text also touches on the idea of North-South cooperation and the need for countries to work together to address the challenges of underdevelopment.

**Category**
Economic development, International trade