Nonproliferation talks entered their decisive phase after the submission of a joint U.S.-Soviet draft to the ENDC on February 21, 1967. One week later, High-Commissioner of the French Commissariat Ă lâĂ©nergie atomique, Francis Perrin, assessed Franceâs options. It was not âby accident,â he noted, the original five UN Security Council permanent membersâthe United States, the United Kingdom, France, the Soviet Union, and Chinaâwere in line for nuclear-club membership: ââŠthey are the same profound reasons, of a geographical, demographic or other nature, which led to the choice [in 1945] ⊠of the countries with special responsibilities in the maintenance of world peace.â After noting how advances in âIndia, Israel, Japan, Sweden, and also West Germanyâ portended the further spread of nuclear weaponsâand acknowledging France had itself sought help with its weapon programâPerrin pondered whether proliferation might hasten nuclear disarmament by convincing the superpowers of its merits. In the end, however, fear of a âlarge and hostileâ nuclear-armed PRC made him pessimistic. While he did not advise signing the NPT, it would be âvery importantâ for France to affirm publicly, if unilaterally, âits constant policy since 1958 ⊠not to cede any atomic weapon or any atomic explosive device to a country which does not possess it, and not to help any such country to manufacture them.â He dismissed internal opposition toward the NPT as defensiveâ"an a posteriori justification of the French decision to constitute an atomic armament." More significant was the likelihood West Germany would gain its own atomic arsenal, jeopardizing Franceâs âdominant political position among the Europe of the Sixâ members of the European Communities and reviving Cold War tensions in Europe. He finished with an eye-opening analysis of how the Kosygin proposal for nuclear-weapon states to extend negative security guarantees to non-nuclear-weapon statesâ signatory to the NPT would not impede the use of French nuclear armaments against a West German blitzkrieg backed by the United States.