Absolute determinations of star positions using transit and vertical circles according to the methods developed at Pulkovo are being made at Pulkovo, at Nikolaiev, at the Golossejevo Observatory of the Ukraine Academy of Sciences, and at Santiago de Chile. At this latter observatory Soviet and Chilean astronomers have completed a series of observations of both bright and faint fundamental stars with a photographic vertical circle, and these observations are now being reduced at Pulkovo. Absolute determinations of right ascension will be made at the Cerro Calan Observatory using a large transit instrument recently constructed at Pulkovo. Further details of some of the Southern observations are given in the following paper to be presented by Dr. Anguita.