In a note dated 16 January 1958, the Assistant Secretary-General of the Standing Armaments Committee (SAC) circulates a note from the United Kingdom delegation on the relationship between bilateral discussions between the Member States of Western European Union (WEU) and multilateral discussions in the SAC. Given that the main objective of the European countries is to provide for their armed forces at the right time and in the right quantities, the United Kingdom observes that it is vital to coordinate military requirements in order to establish the nature of the equipment required, to share the scientific effort needed to develop the equipment and to coordinate production orders so that production can be planned on the right scale. The note explains the different processes and the most suitable format — multilateral or bilateral — to carry them out successfully. The United Kingdom delegation also hopes that the United States will be involved in all these processes.