In June 1955 a conference was held in San Francisco to celebrate the tenth anniversary of the UN. Many of the attendant state leaders raised the question of the need of admitting new members. One of the participants was the foreign minister of Canada Lester Pierson. In his speech he expressed regret that many sovereign states of great importance are not members of the UN. Specifically he mentioned Austria, Japan, Ireland, Spain, as well as Bulgaria, Hungary and Romania.

On September 14, 1955, a few days before the tenth session of the UN General Assembly was opened in New York, Lester Pierson gave clear instructions to the Canadian delegation. Canada thought a compromise was necessary, therefore it was prepared to support the admission of Albania, Bulgaria, Hungary, Romania and Outer Mongolia in exchange of the admission of Austria, Italy, Finland, Cambodia, Ceylon, Ireland, Japan, Jordan, Laos, Libya, Nepal, Spain and Portugal. In view of this, Canada offered “the big western troika” to seek a gentlemanly accord with the USSR for common support of these candidate countries.

Meanwhile, in his speech before the UN General Assembly, USSR foreign minister Molotov categorically demanded the admission of the five states – Albania, Bulgaria, Romania, Hungary and Mongolia. The same demand was addressed by Poland and Czechoslovakia.

Lester Pierson greatly relied on the experience and ability to conduct consultations and negotiations of the Canadian minister of health and social welfare Paul Martin (who later became foreign minister). Therefore he assigned him head of the Canadian delegation to this session with the task of securing a “package” resolution on the admission of all the 18 candidate states.

Meanwhile, Lester Pierson visited Moscow at the invitation of foreign minister Vyacheslav Molotov. The two discussed a number of important issues, among which the admission of new UN members. The USSR tried to persuade Canada to play the role of “balanced” mediator in the solution of this issue, because the USA-USSR relations were very aggravated.

Paul Martin drew a draft resolution and consulted it with other UN members. He sought to secure enough votes for it. He was daily engaged with this task for two and a half months (from end September to December 14, 1955, when the new members were admitted).

Paul Martin carried out long negotiations with the USA, Great Britain and France. The British wanted the tabling of the draft resolution to be postponed. The resolution co-authors were of a different opinion. They thought the three years, during which this issue had been on the agenda of the Security Council, were sufficient time for finding a solution.

The first vote on the Canadian draft resolution took place in the Special Political Committee (one of the seven chief committees of the General Assembly): 52 states voted pro, two voted against – China (Taiwan) and Cuba, and five abstained, among which the USA, France and Belgium.

On the following day, December 8, 1955, the vote in the General Assembly had the same result, except that Great Britain voted for the resolution. Observers and delegates found an explanation for this change in position in Great Britain’s desire not to remain isolated from the members of the British Commonwealth of Nations.

Of course, the resolution of the General Assembly did not settle the matter, because the UN Charter provides that the Security Council is the first body to recommend the admission of a state (states) before the General Assembly pases a final decision.

In the Security Council, however, there was no preliminary consensus. When consideration of the individual applications started, China (Taiwan) attacked the admission of the Soviet “satellite countries” and put a veto on the admission of Mongolia. This was a sufficient challenge to the USSR, which in turn vetoed the admission of all Western candidate states. The session was closed.

On the morning of December 14, the USSR requested the convening of an extraordinary session of the Security Council. The Soviet representative Arkadiy Sobolev tabled a new draft resolution enumerating 16 countries, omitting Mongolia and Japan, proposing their approval for UN membership.

This move was extremely complicated for the Council. A draft resolution was presented that had to be voted. The Council members thought over their positions again. With the voting on the morning of December 14, the Security Council adopted Resolution 109 (1955) (S/3509). It contained two important paragraphs:

“After considering separately the applications for membership of Albania, Jordan, Ireland, Italy, Portugal, Hungary, Austria, Romania, Bulgaria, Finland, Ceylon, Nepal, Libya, Cambodia, Laos and Spain;

Recommends to the General Assembly the admission to the UN of the above-mentioned states.”

Mongolia and Japan were not enumerated among the candidate countries.

In the afternoon the General Assembly gathered for an official sitting to decide the issue concerning the admission of the candidate states recommended by the Security Council. The vote was taken. Albania got 48 votes for, 3 against (Greece, China and Cuba) and 5 abstentions. Romania and Hungary – 49 for, 2 against (China, Cuba) and 5 abstentions (Greece, USA, the Netherlands, the Philippines and the Dominican Republic). Bulgaria – 50 for, 2 against (China, Cuba) and 5 abstentions (Greece, USA, the Netherlands, the Philippines and the Dominican Republic).

When the president of the General Assembly announced the results of the voting, which carried the admission of the 16 states, the representatives of the UN member states received them with applause and rose to their feet. Paul Martin was also loudly applauded as he went to the tribune to salute the new members.

This was the end of the battle on the question of principle concerning the enlargement of the world organization and the start of the irreversible universalization of the UN, going through the process of decolonization in the 1960s, 70s and 80s when more than 80 colonial territories gained their freedom and became independent states. Today the United Nations has 191 members. An undisputed success!

On December 15, 1955, a day after Bulgaria’s admission to the UN, the UN General Secretary Dag Hammarskjold sent a congratulatory telegram to the Bulgarian foreign minister Dr. Mincho Neychev.

The salutatory telegram of the Prime Minister of India Jawaharlal Neru to the Bulgarian premier bears the same date.

Again on December 15, the Bulgarian deputy foreign minister Lyuben Gerasimov instructed the minister plenipotentiary in London Dimiter Halov to inform the Canadian ambassador to Great Britain that Bulgaria thanks Canada for its efforts for Bulgaria’s admission to the UN and in the new situation desires to establish diplomatic relations with Canada. With this the Bulgarian government admitted the decisive role Canada played for the admission of Bulgaria to membership in the United Nations.