Back in January, Russian Foreign Minister Count Mikhail Nikolayevich Muravyov addressed a note to the nations of the world, proposing a reduction of armaments. Representatives of 26 countries gathered at the conference. Although they did not want to reduce armaments, they signed treaties on the peaceful resolution of international disputes and on the law of war on land. In addition, the participating countries adopted three declarations that prohibited the use of asphyxiating gases, explosive dum-dum bullets and discharge of projectiles and explosives from balloons. The world would learn the value of the Hague Conventions fifteen years later during World War I.