Editorial Note
During the first seven months of 1951, an expert working group of the North Atlantic Council Deputies worked at the difficult and complex task of preparing a draft agreement on the privileges and immunities of civilian members of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. This was in effect a companion agreement to the North Atlantic Treaty status-of-armed-forces agreement which was being prepared at the same time. Regarding the status-of-forces agreement, see the editorial note, page 186. After intensive and prolonged negotiations, the draft agreement developed by the working group (document D–D(51)178) was submitted to the Council Deputies on July 25. The Council Deputies transmitted the draft agreement to NATO governments. The draft agreement was further revised and perfected by the working group during August in the light of comments and proposals of the governments. A perfected text was completed at the end of August. The final approved text of the agreement, entitled “Agreement on the Status of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, National Representatives and International Staff,” was signed by the Council Deputies in Ottawa on September 20 at the conclusion of the Seventh Session of the North Atlantic Council. For the text [Page 281] of the agreement as ratified by the United States on July 24, 1953, and entered into force in May 1954, together with a corrective agreement signed by the Council Deputies on December 12, 1951, and a corollary agreement between the North Atlantic Council Deputies and the United States signed in London on September 29, 1951, see TIAS No. 2992, printed in 5 UST, p. 1087. The text of the agreement is also included in Ismay, NATO, page 224. The extensive documentation on the negotiation of the agreement, particularly the voluminous exchange of telegrams between the Department of State and the United States representatives concerned with the negotiations, is included in file 740.5.