At the meeting of 24 October 1956, the President-in-Office of the Council of Western European Union (WEU), Joseph Luns from the Netherlands, informs the Council that, following their previous meetings, he asked the Secretary General of the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO), Lord Hastings Ismay, to send him any information on discussions within NATO concerning relations between the two organisations. But at a private meeting of the NATO Council it appears to have been decided that it would be impossible to allow Lord Ismay to send the WEU Secretary-General the information that he has requested, thereby contravening the principle of reciprocity.