On May 14, 1951 meetings were held of the Council and Political Committee of the Arab League in Damascus. Press reports indicated that the meeting of the Political Committee concerned the question of whether or not the Arab states should put into effect a real military alliance. On the same day the Foreign Affairs Committee of the Egyptian Chamber of Deputies had discussed the ratification of the Arab collective security pact. Egypt had been the originator of the pact which although initialled by six of the seven Arab nations had only been ratified by Saudi-Arabia. The press deduced from these reports that Syria wanted to know where it stood in case the Israeli-Syrian conflict became more serious. Iraq had already offered any support Syria asked for and sent some military detachments and an anti-aircraft unit through Syrian territory to the Israeli border. The Acting Prime Minister and Foreign Minister of Israel (Sharett), however, in an address to the Knesset Parliament in Jerusalem, warned the Political Committee that Israel was firmly resolved to defend every inch of her territory against encroachment or domination by Syria.

A combined exercise, lasting about three days, was held at the end of April 1951. United Kingdom and Dutch military, naval and air forces took part in the exercise. A Dutch light cruiser, two United Kingdom destroyers, two Dutch frigates and a number of United Kingdom and Dutch MTB's, landing craft and motor launches cooperated with Dutch military forces in bombardment and amphibious operations and Netherlands aircraft provided air attack and support.

The Caribbean Commission held its twelfth meeting at Barbados from May 7 to 12, 1951 under the chairmanship of Sir George Seel (United Kingdom).

Jamaica was chosen as the site for the fifth session of the West Indian Conference which was to be held in the first half of October to avoid conflict with the tourist season. The principal theme was to be “Industrialization and Vocational Training”.

Meeting in Strasbourg on May 2, 1951, before the opening of the third session of the Consultaive Assembly, the eighth session of the Committee of the Ministers agreed that western Germany should be promoted from associate to full membership in the Council of Europe as it fulfilled, in their estimation, the requirements of the Statute. On the same day, Dr. Konrad Adenaur, Chancellor and Foreign Minister for the Federal Republic of Germany, joined the committee. The Saar was left, therefore, as the only associate member of the Council and its minister of the interior (Hector) attended committee meetings as an observer. The question of the Saar's future status was avoided by the Committee of Ministers in view of the German position that it should be completely dropped from membership.

On May 5, 1951, the Deputies of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization announced the adoption by their governments of new terms of reference for the North Atlantic Council, a reorganization of the various committees of the Council, and the creation of a financial and economic board.

Contrary to the first two annual reports of OEEC which had concentrated on an analysis of national programs and common future policy both within the structure of the organization and beyond the end of the program, the third report of OEEC did not draw to any large extent upon individual national programs for the future, nor attempt to describe in detail future problems and action. The report presented an account of the achievements of the western European economy since the inception of the recovery program and of the progress made in stimulating economic cooperation. The problems of the immediate future were discussed in qualitative terms.

At a meeting on March 15, 1951, the Council of the Organization of American States approved the reports of the Committee on Finances relative to the budgets of the Pan American Institute of Geography and History for 1951–52 and of the American International Institute for the Protection of Childhood for 1951 and transmitted them to member governments. The report of the Special Committee on Committees was approved and its recommendations on membership, organization and functions of Council committees adopted. Included among these recommendations were the following: 1) membership in Council committees should be renewed periodically, in order to give all Council members opportunity to participate in committee work; 2) in the appointment of members, geographic representation should be taken into consideration wherever possible; 3) the number of members on each committee should not exceed seven; 4) pursuant to article 41 of the regulations of the Council, the designation of committee members should be left to the Council chairman; 5) the services of the General Committee might be more frequently utilized by entrusting to it matters for which special committees were presently appointed; and 6) appointment of members of the Committee on Finances should be made within two weeks after the budget was approved to avoid interruption in the preparation and study of the budget.

At the seventh session of the South Pacific Commission, which convened at Noumea, New Caledonia from April 28 to May 7, 1951, Sir Brian Freeston, present Governor of Fiji and High Commissioner for the Western Pacific, was chosen Secretary-General to succeed Mr. W. D. Forsyth.

According to the report of the United States High Commissioner for Austria (Donnelly) covering the first quarter of the year 1951, the most significant political event of the period was the decision of the Austrian government to elect its new president, successor to Dr. Karl Renner who died on December 31, by popular vote instead of by parliamentary ballot. This new presidential election law, enacted by the Austrian parliament on January 16, was one of the subjects under discussion at the February 9 meeting of the Allied Council. Although the three western powers voiced their approval of the new law, the Soviet delegate contended that since the Austrian constitution of 1929 had not been approved by the Allied Council he saw no legal basis for the law and insisted on having it replaced by a “special constitutional law”, which would have been subject to the Soviet veto. The United States representative supported the validity of the Austrian constitution, pointing out that the Soviet Union had already approved many laws modifying the 1929 constitution —a slightly amended form of the 1920 constitution — which had been voided by the Nazis in 1938. The point at issue was the fact that instructions had been given to the Austrian government to prepare a new draft constitution by July 1, 1946, and the Austrian parliament, instead of attempting the task of formulating a constitution which would be acceptable to all members of the Allied Council as well as to Austria, had passed resolutions in April 1946 reviving the Federal Constitutional Law of 1929.

The three commandants of west Berlin on June 11 sent a note to the Soviet Control Commission protesting the restrictions by the Soviet authorities against the export of certain commodities from west Berlin to western Germany. Under the new export regulations seventeen categories of goods could not be forwarded to western Germany unless special certificates listing the sources of raw materials used for their manufacture were attached to the bills of lading. The commandants considered these measures illegal because they were contrary to the agreements of New York and Paris of 1949 which put an end to the blockade of Berlin. It was reported that measures were being discussed by western High Commissioners at Bonn to counter the Soviet Union's “little blockade”. According to press reports, a reply from the Soviet Control Commission on June 18 asserted its right to control Berlin shipping.

On April 9, 1951, the deputies of the foreign ministers of the United States, the United Kingdom, France, and the Soviet Union began their sixth week of Paris meetings in an attempt to frame an agenda for a conference of the foreign ministers.

Japanese Peace Treaty: Diplomatic discussions initiated in the fall of 1950 by the United States government with members of the Far Eastern Commission continued during the period under review. On December 27, 1950, the United States delivered to the Soviet representative to the United Nations (Malik) an aide-mémoire which further discussed points raised by the Soviet government in its reply of November 20 to the United States proposal of October 26 for a Japanese peace treaty. After careful study of the Soviet reply, the United States concluded that most of the questions it raised had been answered by the proposal of October 26. In addition, the United States aide-mémoire included the following points: 1) the hope that all nations at war with Japan would participate in the conclusion of peace; 2) no nation had a perpetual power to veto the conclusion by others of peace with Japan; 3) the Cairo Declaration of 1943, like those of Yalta and Potsdam, was subject to any final peace settlement where all relevant factors should be considered; 4) upon conclusion of a peace settlement the military occupation of Japan should cease; 5) current international conditions made it reasonable for Japan to participate with other nations in arrangements for individual and collective self-defense, such as were envisaged by Article 51 of the United Nations Charter; and 6) the treaty should not limit the Japanese peace-time economy nor deny Japan access to raw materials or participation in world trade.

Noting the report of the Additional Measures Cómittee dated 14 May 1951, Recalling its resolution 498 (v) of 1 February 1951,

Noting that:

(a) The Additional Measures Committee established by that resolution has considered additional measures to be employed to meet the aggression in Korea,

(b) The Additional Measures Committee has reported that a number of States have already taken measures designed to deny contributions to the military strength of the forces opposing the United Nations in Korea,

Recalling its past resolutions of 15 July 1948, 11 August 1949, 17 November 1950 and 8 May 1951 relating to the General Armistice Agreements between Israel and the neighbouring Arab States and to the provisions contained therein concerning methods for maintaining the armistice and resolving disputes through the Mixed Armistice Commissons participated in by the parties to the General Armistice Agreements.

Examination of the causes and effects of present international tensions in Europe and of the means to secure a real and lasting improvement in the relations between the Soviet Union, the United States, United Kingdom and France, including the following questions relating to: the demilitarization of Germany; the existing level of armaments and armed forces and measures to be proposed jointly by the USSR, United States, United Kingdom and France for the international control and reduction of armaments and armed forces; fulfillment of present treaty obligations and agreements; the elimination of the threat of war and fear of aggression.