Council of Foreign Ministers

Council of Foreign Ministers was an organisation agreed upon at the Potsdam Conference in 1945 and announced in the Potsdam Agreement and dissolved upon the entry into force of the Treaty on the Final Settlement with Respect to Germany in 1991.

The Potsdam Agreement specified that the Council would be composed of the Foreign Ministers of the United Kingdom, the Soviet Union, China, France, and the United States. It would normally meet in London (at Lancaster House) and the first meeting was to take place no later than 1 September 1945. As the immediate important task, the Council was authorised to draw up treaties of peace with Italy, Romania, Bulgaria, Hungary and Finland, and to propose settlements of territorial questions outstanding on the termination of the war in Europe. Also, the Council should prepare a peace settlement for Germany to be accepted when a "government adequate for the purpose is established".