lukewarm at best, as he was not interested in strengthening Poland. He was content to see Czechoslovakia re-established within its pre-1938 borders. Nonetheless, Beneš did not refuse Sikorski's proposal outright, as the federation proposal was supported by the UK and later by the US, which also supported the plans for other federations such as the Greek-Yugoslav confederation. He was afraid that open refusal would lead to the Poles opening negotiations with the Czechoslovak opposition or to his government being marginalized by the British Foreign Office. Beneš decided to continue the negotiations with the Poles over the possibility of federation but with little haste; in fact, many of the Czechoslovak government's moves were designed to prolong the negotiations without any real commitment. The negotiations proceeded slowly, with numerous conferences, and with joint declarations on 11 November 1940 (a declaration by the two governments about entering "a closer political and economic association"), on 23 January 1942 (in which both governments agreed to form a confederation after the war and mentioned common policies on diplomacy, defense, trade, education and communication) and on 10 June 1942. January 1941 saw the establishment of the Czechoslovak-Polish Coordinating Committee to oversee the process of the negotiations. Some early proposals focused on economic co-operation, unified foreign policy, a customs union and a common currency but separate government offices. A Polish proposal from 1941 called for the co-ordination of foreign and economic policies, including total economic unification. Beneš tried to frame the potential federation as no more than a tool for mutual defense against Germany and argued that the Soviet Union was not a threat but a potential ally. The Czechoslovak position was so pro-Soviet that the Beneš government passed secret documents from the Czech-Polish negotiations to the Soviets and assured them that they were acting in the best interests of Czechoslovakia-Soviet Union relations. The Soviets saw the Polish-led federation of Central and Eastern European states as a threat to their planned sphere of influence. They put further pressure on the Czechoslovak government, with promises of alliance and territorial guarantees. By late 1942 and early 1943, as the Soviet Union's position was boosted by its military victories, Czechoslovak-Soviet cooperation became much stronger; on 12 November 1942, the Czechoslovak side suspended talks with the Poles until permission from the Soviet Union had been obtained, and on 10 February 1943, the Czechoslovak diplomat Hubert Ripka informed the Polish government that no