137. Memorandum From the Senior Political Adviser to the Mission at the United Nations (McSweeney) to Joseph J. Sisco of the International Organization Affairs Staff of the Mission at the United Nations1
SUBJECT
- Membership: Soviet Union
Zamyatin (USSR)2 approached me with an inquiry regarding the membership problem. He first inquired as to the meaning of the Canadian draft resolution and did a little shadow-boxing on the method of treatment of the resolution in the Ad Hoc Committee. He professed to understand that the consensus in the UN was that it should be taken up early next week in the Ad Hoc Committee.
It was pretty clear that he really was under instructions to find out what was the present status of our inquiries of the other permanent members as the result of Ambassador Lodge’s conversation with Kuznetsov. I spent most of my words endeavoring not to give any answers but still to retain our initiative and interest in the matter.
After a certain amount of chit-chat he agreed, as one might expect a Soviet to do, that the first positive step in solution of the membership question must be private but firm understanding amongst the permanent members of the Security Council. He also agreed that discussion of membership in the Ad Hoc Committee, presumably to be followed by recommendation to the Security Council on the membership applications of a certain group of countries, could hardly be helpful and might well be harmful since the necessity of speaking in public would be likely to give rise to reiteration of old positions and hinder the possibility of progress in private conversations.
In the conversation he first started speaking of the 18 countries mentioned by Canada but later, and quite purposefully I am sure, referred to 16 and, a couple of times, 17 applicants.
He indicated considerable interest in the question of whether the Soviets now should rely on negotiations in New York to proceed in this matter or to take the question up at Geneva.
If he is representative of the Soviet viewpoint, the Soviets would hope that there would be some indication of progress in the private negotiations and if this were the case would prefer to defer [Page 320] any Ad Hoc Committee action. He, as always, was insistent on the necessity of some sort of solid assurance to the Soviets regarding the admission of their candidates. He suggested that it would be necessary to have some sort of informal meeting of the Security Council members prior to the formal session which would take membership action.
I think that if we are really interested in the solution of the membership matter on terms acceptable to us we should be able to give the Soviets some sort of an answer in the very near future as to the prospects. They would, I think, be prepared to go along with us to defer Ad Hoc consideration if we were able to convince them that we are in fact moving forward, however slowly.
If we are not able to have some such conversation with them, I would expect they will assume that our previous conversations have been insincere and that they will proceed to use the membership question for the utmost propaganda effect.