talking with German officials about a potential political Soviet–German agreement. On April 7, Soviet diplomat Georgii Astakhov stated to the German Foreign Ministry that there was no point in continuing the German–Soviet ideological struggle and that the two countries could come to an agreement. Ten days later, Soviet ambassador Alexei Merekalov met with German State Secretary Ernst Weizsacker and presented him a note requesting speedy removal of any obstacles for fulfillment of military contracts signed between Czechoslovakia and the USSR before the former was occupied by Germany. According to German accounts, at the end of the discussion the ambassador stated "there exists for Russia no reason why she should not live with us on a normal footing. And from normal the relations might become better and better." Other sources claim that it could be an exaggeration or inaccurate recounting of the ambassador's words. Immediately after the meeting, the Soviet ambassador had been withdrawn to Moscow and never returned to Germany. Likelihood of war increased military production in both Germany and the Soviet Union. The Soviets' Third Five Year Plan would require massive new infusions of technology and industrial equipment. Meanwhile, German military spending increased to 23% of gross national product in 1939. German planners in April and May 1939 feared that a cessation of Swedish trade would cut key iron ore supplies. Without Soviet supplies, it was estimated that Germany would need to find substitutes for approximately 165,000 tons of manganese and almost 2 million tons of oil per year. Germany already faced severe rubber shortages because of British and Dutch refusals to trade. In addition to domestic food fat and oil importation reliance, other food problems arose from labor shortages in the agricultural sector that required the work of schoolchildren and students. On May 8, German officials estimated that Germany had oil reserves for only 3.1 months. In the context of further economic discussions, on May 17, Astakhov told a German official that he wanted to restate "in detail that there were no conflicts in foreign policy between Germany and Soviet Russia and that therefore there was no reason for any enmity between the two countries." Three days later, on May 20, Molotov told the German ambassador in Moscow that he no longer wanted to discuss only economic matters, and that it was necessary to establish a "political basis", which German officials saw an "implicit invitation" and a "virtual