The following summary covers the activities of the Council of the Organization of American States from its 118th meeting on December 3, 1952, through its 129th meeting on April 1, 1953.

On January 7, 1953, the Council approved the report of the Finance Committee on the budget for the fiscal year 1953–1954: $2,939,030 for the expenses of the Pan American Union, $219,524 for the Inter-American Defense Board, and $1,377 for repayment of advances from the Working Capital Fund. Of this amount, members would contribute $3, 159, 941; making allowance for income from miscellaneous sources, the budget was $225, 782 higher than for the pre-ceding fiscal year. The Council also approved the scale of assessments for the coming fiscal year; contributions by members ranged from 66 percent for the United States, 8.81 percent for Brazil and 7.42 percent for Argentina to 0.24 percent each for Costa Rica, Ecuador, Haiti, Honduras, Nicaragua and Paraguay. The attention of member governments was drawn to a report submitted to the Council on March 4, 1953, by the Finance Committee on the status of members' contributions; the report revealed that six countries had paid in full their quotas for the fiscal year ended June 30, 1953, four countries had paid in part while eleven had as yet made no payment. Two members still owed part of their quotas for the fiscal year ended June 30, 1952 while four had made no payment on that quota. Three members still owed their quotas of the budgets of fiscal years before 1951–1952.