Conference files, lot 59 D 95, CF 97
Communiqué Approved by the Foreign Ministers of the United Kingdom, the United States, France, and the Federal Republic of Germany
Statement on Allied–Bonn Agreement
The Foreign Ministers of France, the United Kingdom and the United States met today with Dr. Adenauer.
This meeting, the first occasion on which the Chancellor and Foreign Minister of the German Federal Republic had jointly conferred with the foreign ministers of the three Western powers, marked in itself a notable advance in the progressive association of the German Federal Republic with the West on the basis of equal partnership. All participants welcomed the opportunity given for a general review of a problem of mutual concern.
[Page 1608]In the course of the conversation, which dealt with the general political situation of the Federal Republic in connection with the present world situation, the four foreign ministers reviewed the progress so far made in the negotiations carried on in Bonn for the establishment by freely negotiated agreements of a new basis for the relationship between their countries.
In particular they examined the draft of a general agreement between the four Governments which had been prepared in Bonn. This is to establish the main principles of their future relationship and can only enter into force together with the related conventions referred to below and the treaty establishing a European defense community.
Certain outstanding points in the general agreement were settled and, subject to final confirmation by their Governments, the ministers have approved the draft of this agreement. It will not be signed or published at present, since the four Governments agree that it must be completed by a number of related conventions governing in more detail other important matters arising out of the future relationship between them. The ministers agreed on the need for rapid progress in the completion of all these related conventions.
The general agreement will be a concisive step toward the realization of the common aim of the three Western powers and the Federal Government to integrate the Federal Republic on a basis of equality in a European community itself included in a developing Atlantic community.
With the coming into force of the general agreement and the related convention, the Occupation Statute with its powers of intervention in the domestic affairs of the Federal Republic will be revoked, and the Allied High Commission and the Offices of the Land Commissioners will be abolished. The three powers will retain only such special rights as cannot now be renounced because of the special international situation of Germany, and which it is in the common interest of the four states to retain. These rights relate to the stationing and the security of the forces in Germany to Berlin and to questions concerning Germany as a whole.
The mission of the forces stationed in Germany by the three powers will be the defense of the free world, of which the Federal Republic and Berlin form part. Their status will be settled in detail in one of the related conventions. Any disputes rising from the interpretation or application of the general agreement or the related conventions—with the exception of certain special rights—will be settled by a court of arbitration.
The Federal Republic will undertake to conduct its policy in accordance with the principles set forth in the Charter of the United Nations and with the aims defined in the Statute of the Council of Europe.
[Page 1609]The four ministers are agreed that an essential aim of the common policy of their Governments is a peace settlement for the whole of Germany freely negotiated between Germany and her former enemies, which should lay the foundation for a lasting peace. They further agreed that the final settlement of the boundaries of Germany await such a settlement.
They reaffirmed their intention to strive for the establishment of German unity, and agree on the importance of the proposals now before the General Assembly of the United Nations designed to ascertain whether free elections can be held simultaneously in the Federal Republic, Berlin and the Soviet zone of Germany.1
The four foreign ministers consider the contractual arrangement to be concluded between their Governments as well as the treaties for the creation of an integrated European community as essential steps to the achievement of their common aim: A unified Germany integrated within the Western European community.