The formal concept, most frequently known by its acronym (CBM), was first put forward in January 1973 in proposals by Belgium and Italy at the Helsinki preparatory consultations to establish an agenda for the Conference on Security Cooperation in Europe (CSCE). After prolonged discussions and much disagreement, the idea was ultimately agreed upon in the following terms:

At the CSCE negotiations in Geneva that followed between 1973 and 1975, three distinctive approaches to CBMs were set out. The Western bloc states saw CBMs in political rather than military terms. They argued for greater “openness” in military activities in Europe. In contrast, the Warsaw Pact states, in the few submissions they made on the subject, attached military significance to CBMs and rejected calls for “openness”, seeing it as a means of establishing a form of “legal espionage”. A middle path was taken by the neutral and non-aligned states (together with Romania). They endorsed the spirit of the West's position but advocated additional specific CBMs, including the making of military budgets public; the imposition of constraints on military activities; specific disarmament measures; and the creation of a link between the CSCE and the Mutual Balanced Force Reduction (MBFR) talks. However, most of the Western states and all of the Warsaw Pact members (again, the latter with the exception of Romania) were hostile to the inclusion of disarmament issues, and reference to them was diluted in the final draft.

The final product of the negotiations, the “Document on Confidence-Building Measures and Certain Aspects of Security and Disarmament”, states that the general objective of CBMs is to eliminate the causes of tension and to strengthen peace and security.