A communiqué issued by the Council of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) on May 7, 1959, expressed the Council's opinion that, on the eve of the Geneva conference of foreign ministers, the Soviet Union appeared to be misinterpreting western intentions in proceeding with the orderly development of their program for modernizing the forces of the alliance. The Council noted further that these programs for improving NATO defences were the consequence of long established NATO policies which were arrived at through joint decisions of NATO countries; moreover, they had been in the process of implementation for over two years, and therefore they could not conceivably be designed, as alleged by the Soviet Union, to prejudice the success of the forthcoming meeting in Geneva.

It was reported on July 14, 1959, that the Council of the Organization of American States (OAS), meeting in Washington, D. C., had voted unanimously to call together immediately the foreign ministers of the 21 American republics.

Additional measures to increase the numbers of scientists and engineers in European countries were agreed upon by the Council of the Organization for European Economic Cooperation (OEEC) in approving the second annual program of the organization's Office for Scientific and Technical Personnel. Potential funds at the disposal of the Office were increased to approximately $1,350,000 in order to put this program into effect. The new program was to comprise courses, seminars, conferences, and improved methods of instruction and experiment which would help the spread of scientific and technological knowledge and new training policies throughout Europe.

The fourth South Pacific Conference was held at Rabaul, New Britain, in the territory of Papua and New Guinea, from April 20 to May 13, 1959. Sixty-five delegates and advisers attended from sixteen Pacific territories and the Kingdom of Tonga. The Conference was divided into two standing committees, one dealing with social and health questions, and the other with matters affecting the economic welfare of the island peoples. For the second time in the history of the conferences, the delegates themselves elected the chairman and vice-chairman of each committee, but for the first time a woman was elected chairman of one of them, i.e., the social committee. The Conference proceedings were governed by a general committee, on which each of the six governments forming the membership of the South Pacific Commission was represented by a member of a territorial delegation; the chairman of the Conference, Mr. J. R. Halligan, Australia's Senior Commissioner on the South Pacific Commission, was the only European member of the general committee.

The Assembly of Western European Union (WEU) opened its fifth ordinary session in the House of Europe on June 15, 1959. Mr. Vittorio Badini Confalonieri (Italian Liberal) was elected President, and the following were elected Vice-Presidents: Mr. Joseph Bech (Luxembourg Social Christian), Dame Florence Horsbrugh (British Conservative), Mr. J. J. R. Schmal (Dutch Historical Christian), Mr. Carlo Schmid (German Socialist), Mr. Georges Bohy (Belgium Socialist), and Mr. Robert Abdesselam (Algerian).

The most recent report by the Contracting Parties to the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) opened with a survey of developments in the structure and pattern of international trade. After exceeding $100 billion, an all-time high, in 1957, the value of world exports had dropped sharply, by about 6 percent, in the first half of 1958, but had recovered nearly half of that loss in the second half of that year. If the effect of price movements was eliminated, on die other hand, the volume (as differentiated from the value) of world exports in the second half of 1958 established a new all-time record, even exceeding, if only by a fraction, the preceding peak which was reached in the second half of 1957. In the movements of international trade and of world output, the role played by the United States had continued to be predominant, although the United States was steadily losing in relative importance in world production, because output elsewhere was rising faster. Although the unsettled economic conditions, especially in North America, and the slowing down of economic growth elsewhere during the two years under consideration had turned out, after the event, to be less disastrous in their general effect upon world production and world trade than might have been expected, it was true that the decline in the share that exports from die nonindustrial to the industrial areas represented in the world total continued further. The relatively well maintained value of imports, moreover, together with a relatively falling value of exports, had given rise in recent years to a growing adverse balance on merchandise account for the nonindustrial areas. Their total import surplus continued at, and even slightly increased beyond, the impressive level of 1957—in fact nearly reaching $4 billion—although the various groups of countries within this category shared very unevenly in this total.

The eighteenth plenary meeting of the International Cotton Advisory Committee was held in Washington, May 14–22, 1959. Governments from 34 countries were represented as members and 24 attended as observers; representatives from ten international organizations were also in attendance. Eight resolutions were adopted by the plenary meeting, the first four of which were concerned with budgetary matters. The fifth dealt with the future work program and instructed the secretariat to prepare a statement on government regulations on cotton and a report on harsh short staple cotton; the secretariat was also instructed to keep under review the extra-long staple cotton situation, to investigate the possibility of a similar survey on long staple cottons, and to provide as much information as possible on the effect of competition from the Soviet Union, communist China, and eastern Europe on world markets for cotton and cotton textiles. The sixth resolution drew attention to the present surplus situation of extra-long staples and indicated the desirability of convening a special meeting to examine the problems of this commodity with attention to production plans and policies, price and export policies, and steps needed to encourage consumption.

At a whaling conference in London, in June 1959, representatives of the United Kingdom, Japan, the Netherlands, and Norway again failed to reach agreement on a national quota arrangement for whaling in the Antarctic, a problem which they had been discussing intermittently since November 1958. At the end of the futile talks, Norway resigned from the International Whaling Convention. The Netherlands subsequently followed suit, leaving only die United Kingdom, Japan, and the Soviet Union as members. In consequence, no over-all international quota was fixed for die 1959–1960 season, scheduled to open on December 28. However, the International Whaling Commission reportedly agreed at its eleventh annual meeting diet the maximum permissible catch of whales for the Antarctic season 1959–1960 should not be changed, the figure remaining at 15,000 blue whale units. The blue whale stocks in the North Atlantic were considered to be too low for exploitation at present, so this species was scheduled for complete protection.