On 22 February 1969, commenting on the meeting held on 4 February between Christopher Soames, British Ambassador to Paris, and French President Charles de Gaulle, the British daily newspaper The Guardian harshly criticises the French proposal to open bilateral discussions between the two countries. The article reports the reactions of British Foreign Secretary Michael Stewart, for whom General de Gaulle’s proposal to abolish the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO) and the European Economic Community (EEC) is unacceptable and threatens to endanger the United Kingdom’s close links with the United States, its NATO allies and the other members of Western European Union (WEU).