Both Guidi and Carrington share the concern that NATO's High-level Task Force has come to a deadlock in regard to conventional disarmament. Carrington advocates for direct involvement at the ministerial level to end the standstill.

NATO's Deputy Secretary General Marcello Guidi writes to Foreign Minister Andreotti at the end of his term volunteering his rather optimistic views on the developments in East-West relations and NATO during the past three years. Key topics include disarmament, the German question, and the future role of NATO.