In March 1952, two months before the signing of the European Defense Community, the Soviet Union tried to block this development. Stalin proposed that the four victorious powers meet with a newly formed all-German government to negotiate the peace treaty called for in the Potsdam Agreement of 1945. The price for the prospect of German unity and admission into the United Nations was the country’s political and military neutrality. This was reflected in the demand that all foreign troops be withdrawn and that Germany forgo joining the military alliance.