Since Finland joined the United Nations in 1955, it has been involved in peacekeeping operations all over the world.

We Finns have been involved in peacekeeping operations in the Suez, in Cyprus and in quite a number of other places, so we can regard ourselves as a big power in peacekeeping. But besides traditional peacekeeping, we now have other kinds of problems which do not necessarily follow the established lines of peacekeeping. There is peace enforcement, for instance, and that is a much more difficult kind of operation.

Finland was the first country to grant women full political rights, and today your President and the Speaker of Parliament are women.

The current President of the Republic of Finland, Mrs. Tarja Halonen, used to be a Minister in my Cabinet. She was first Minister of Welfare and after that she became Minister of Justice -- and she is a very capable person. She is a good example of the fact that in Finland we have equal political rights for women and men. We do not regard ourselves according to sex, and that is reflected in the Finnish language. We do not have separate words; we only have one word for "he" and "she". So that it is inherited; it is our basic way of thinking. We have some problems in the area of women's rights, but they are of minor importance if you look at our system and our situation as a whole. Of course, men and women have roles of their own in families and everyday business. Their roles are different, but their rights are equal.

Can the General Assembly play a major role in advancing the equality of rights?

I think the General Assembly offers a forum where these questions can be put forward and discussed. In my opinion, one of the biggest development issues in the world with which most of the other problems are linked is the education of girls. We know from our own experience that this is the most essential issue, but unfortunately this is not the case in many countries. In the United States and Europe, it has largely been accepted, but not in Africa and the developing countries. If there is something I would like to do as President of the General Assembly, it is to place more emphasis on the issue of education.

That ties in with another core concern of the United Nations, namely the eradication of poverty, which is to a large extent a "female" poverty in developing countries.

Exactly. It is education which enables a better life for women and for everybody else. I do not want to speak about overpopulation or birth control, but I think that education is the way to give some new impetus to the poverty question. And human rights questions, in general, start with education.

Your international career has been connected with the United Nations since the early sixties.

I had just finished my studies at the University when I got the opportunity to come and work here. Of course, my work was controlled by the real experts, but I was assigned to the Fifth Committee, for instance. I was there alone. And it was not always so easy to be there (laughs). I was there as a Finnish representative. The Ambassador at that time, Mr. Ralph Enckell, who is a famous figure in Finnish diplomacy, said to me afterwards, "I put you there because I wanted that you would learn something". And I think I did, at least a little.

What is the most striking difference between your experience then and your sense of the United Nations today?

I recently reread an article of mine written in 1964, and I think it is still valid, so there is not much difference. When I was here for the first time as a member of the Finnish delegation to the General Assembly sessions in the beginning of the sixties, most of the basic questions on the agenda were the same as today. Many of the items on the agenda 37 years ago are still there. But they are questions that must be there, such as development issues and human rights matters. Of course, the list has been extended remarkably, but they are still the same basic concerns. As far as I can remember, there are only two or three things which have been dropped: the trusteeship questions for instance, and those on divided countries like Germany and Korea, and apartheid -- but apartheid came later. As an organization, the United Nations is much bigger today; I think at that time there were about 111 Member States, now there are 189. Discussions in the General Assembly are now even more strongly focused on the development issues. Of course they were already on the agenda at that time, but I think human rights issues and development questions have a bigger role today.

I am very familiar with the financial situation of the United Nations. In 1964, I was appointed to be a member of the Finnish delegation as well, but we never came to New York because the General Assembly was practically cancelled due to the financial crisis of the Organization. Now, we are discussing similar problems, not this serious; still, the lack of funds for this Organization has always been with us.

You have six grandchildren. What kind of world do you expect they will face when they are your age?

That is a very important question. I remember when my first child, my son, was born in 1962, I wrote a letter to my grandfather telling him how happy I was but how concerned at the same time. I was concerned because there were so many visions which were not very good. I now have these six wonderful grandchildren, between ages 9 and 2 1/2. Last Sunday, I met three of them and we had a nice Sunday picnic together, and we discussed the problems of the world. The eldest, who is 9 years old, was asking me questions like you: "Grandpa, what do you think I will be when I grow up?" I said, "I can't give you any advice. What do you want?" He said, "I don't know. But one thing that I have decided is not to be an engineer (his father is an aviation engineer), and not to be a politician." I asked, "Why?" "Because my father is always away from home and you have so much to do that you are always travelling. I want to be something else" (laughs). He said that he wanted to be a doctor, because they help other people. I said, "Boy, then become a doctor."

I think we have grave problems. I am very much concerned about environmental questions, even though in Finnish society, we are not facing the most urgent problems. To take one example, the Baltic Sea is becoming more and more polluted due to the fact that not everybody living near the shore of the Baltic Sea is protecting it. It is the water of life for countries like Finland and the other Baltic Sea States like Sweden; it has always been the connecting link in the north of Europe. And now I am very much concerned about what is going to happen with that water if the pollution continues. That is only one example, but it is a very serious one in my mind and to the people who will live in Finland after me, including my grandchildren. What we can do as individuals may not be very much on the global scale, but we have to start the change in this regard by living as we are teaching -- that is the way I feel.

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