At the 495th meeting of the Council of Western European Union (WEU), held at ministerial level on 20 May 1975 in London and chaired by the British Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs James Callaghan, the delegations discuss East–West relations. They make a general assessment of the development of bilateral relations with the countries of Eastern Europe and review the various measures taken by their governments. In this context, Bernard Destremau, French Junior Minister to the Minister for Foreign Affairs, emphasises the importance of maintaining frequent contacts not only with the Soviet Union but with all the countries of Eastern Europe. James Callaghan states that the British Government is making the most of the general climate of détente to improve its relations with Eastern Europe. But he believes that the holding of a summit of the Conference on Security and Cooperation in Europe (CSCE) in the summer will only be possible if the USSR shows some signs of more flexibility before the spring summit of the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO). Moreover, he believes that the limited progress in the negotiations on Mutual and Balanced Force Reductions in Central Europe (MBFR) may be due to the fact the Warsaw Pact countries refuse to acknowledge that the main source of instability in the area is their superiority over the West in terms of tanks and manpower.