On 4 May 1962, the Secretary-General of Western European Union (WEU) circulates the Council’s reply to Assembly Recommendation 69 on the state of European security. The Council’s reply focuses on the various aspects covered by the Recommendation, namely the need for the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO) to strengthen its defence capability as long as no real disarmament has taken place and the importance of achieving a balance between conventional and nuclear forces to guarantee the greatest possible flexibility in responding to Soviet aggression. When forwarding the Recommendation to NATO, the Council drew its attention to the need to give greater authority to allied commanders in the deployment of land forces assigned to NATO. The Council’s reply also focuses on international cooperation for joint arms research and production, a field in which the WEU Member States play an important role. The Council also refers to the provision of information by NATO to the Assembly Committee on Defence Questions and Armaments, mentioning the procedure agreed between the two organisations in 1958. The Council intends to ask NATO to adopt as liberal an approach as possible in the provision of information.