The USSR, in notes to the United States, Great Britain, and France, called for a four-power conference to discuss the unification and rearmament of Germany. On March 23 the Western powers replied that they would consider the establishment of an all-German government only on the basis of free elections; that such a government should not be empowered to rearm but could enter security agreements with other powers; and that the German borders drawn at the 1945 Potsdam Conference were subject to revision.
The USSR continued the exchange of notes on Germany that had begun on March 10. The new note proposed that all-German elections be held under a four-power commission rather than United Nations supervision. It rejected Western views on the rectification of Germany's 1945 frontiers.
Nine months of negotiations with Britain, France, and the United States ended in the signature at Bonn of the contractual agreement giving West Germany internal independence.
