Office of the Historian

Conference files, lot 60 D 627, CF 391

Resolution on Production and Standardization of Armaments1

confidential
Paris, 22 October, 1954.

The Governments of the Kingdom of Belgium, the French Republic, the Federal Republic of Germany, the Italian Republic, the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg, the Kingdom of the Netherlands, and the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland,

Anxious to increase the effectiveness of their common Defence forces to the maximum,

Desirous of ensuring the best possible use of their available armament credits by means of the rational organization of production,

Noting the importance in this connection of standardising weapons and weapon components,

Desirous of facilitating any agreements to this end between all or certain of the Seven Powers:

(1)
Recall the decision taken at the London Conference to set up a Working Party to study the draft directives submitted by the French Government on 1st October 1954 and such other documents as might subsequently be submitted on the problem of the production and standardisation of armaments.
(2)
Agree to convene a Working Group in Paris on the 17th January 1955 of the Representatives of Belgium, France, Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, the Federal Republic of Germany and the United Kingdom, to study the draft directives and other documents referred to in the foregoing paragraph, with a view to submitting proposals to the Council of Western European Union when it comes into being.

  1. This resolution, which was circulated as document NPC/Paris–D/11 (Final), was approved by the Nine-Power Conference during its second meeting on Oct. 21; see p. 1414.↩