multilateral diplomacy. I take this opportunity to pledge to you the unqualified co-operation of my delegation in all your endeavours towards the fulfilment of your onerous responsibilities. BG/14 A/C.l/40/PV.9 58 (Mr. Shah Nawaz, Pakistan) I should also like to congratulate the other officers of the Committee on their well-merited election. Your stewardship of the First Committee comes at a most important time. The current year marks the fortieth anniversary of the founding of the United Nations and is also the year in which we are required to review the implementation of the Second Disarmament Decade at its mid-point. There are several spheres in which the United Nations can be seen as having failed to live up to the high expectations on which it was founded -perhaps none more conspicuous than the sphere of disarmament. While multilateral disarmament efforts have become less and less productive with the passage of time, the arms race in all its aspects has continued to gather momentum. As a result, the world is being pushed inexorably towards the apocalypse which human civilization as we know it will not survive. My delegation therefore fervently hopes that our present stocktaking will strengthen our resolve to break out of the present situation of inertia and stalemate, which would spell disaster for humankind if allowed to continue much longer. It is worth recalling that the General Assembly, when unanimously adopting resolution 35/46, declaring the 1980s the Second Disarmament Decade, attached the highest priority to the conclusion of agreements on a comprehensive test ban, a convention banning chemical weapons, a treaty prohibiting radiological weapons, and effective international arrangements to assure non-nuclear-weapon States against the use or threat of use of nuclear weapons. The declaration in fact called for agreed texts on those subjects by the year 1982. The task of negotiating those 
**Analysis**
The text focuses on the topic of disarmament and the role of the United Nations in addressing this issue. It highlights the failure of the UN to live up to its expectations in the sphere of disarmament and the need for strengthening efforts to break out of the current situation of inertia and stalemate. The text also mentions specific agreements and treaties related to disarmament, such as a comprehensive test ban, a convention banning chemical weapons, and a treaty prohibiting radiological weapons.

**Category**
International relations, Security