Foreign Relations of the United States: Diplomatic Papers, The Conferences at Cairo and Tehran, 1943

White House Files

Text of the Communiqué¹

[Cairo, December 6, 1943.]

Communiqué

Mr. Roosevelt, President of the United States of America, M. Ismet Inönü, President of the Turkish Republic[,] and Mr. Winston Churchill, Prime Minister of Great Britain, met in Cairo on December 4th, 5th and 6th, 1943. Mr. Anthony Eden, His Brittanic [Britannic] Majesty’s Principal Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs, M. Numan Menemencioğlu, Minister of Foreign Affairs of Turkey, and Mr. Harry L. Hopkins, took part in their deliberations.

The participation in this conference of the Head of the Turkish State, in response to the cordial invitation addressed to him by the United States, British and Soviet Governments,² bears striking testimony to the strength of the alliance which united [unites?] Great Britain and Turkey,³ and to the firm friendship existing between the Turkish Republic, the United States of America, and the Soviet Union.

Presidents Roosevelt and Inönü and Prime Minister Churchill reviewed the general political situation and examined at length the policy to be followed, taking into account the joint and several interests of the three countries.

The study of all problems in a spirit of understanding and loyalty showed that the closest unity existed between the United States of America, Turkey and Great Britain in their attitude towards the world situation.

The conversations in Cairo have consequently been most useful and most fruitful for the future of the relations between the four countries there represented.

The identity of interest and of views of the American and British democracies, with those of the Soviet Union, and the traditional relations of friendship existing between these powers and Turkey, have been reaffirmed throughout the proceedings of the Cairo conference.

1. The text here printed is that of the communiqué” printed as Appendix “H” to the Log. This copy was made at Cairo on the basis of the text released there. The text as cabled from Cairo is printed in the Department of State Bulletin, vol. ix, December 11, 1943, p. 412. The latter text shows, in addition to minor variations, the following variations of substance: “Turkish people” (instead of “Turkish Republic”), in the second paragraph; “to” (instead of “towards”), in the fourth paragraph; “the four countries concerned” (instead of “the four countries there represented” in the fifth paragraph; the additional words “great”, before “American”, and “three” before “powers”, in the last sentence; “as also the traditional relations” (instead of “and the traditional relations”), and “interests” (instead of “interest”), also in the last sentence.
2. See ante, p. 633.
3. For the British-French-Turkish Treaty of Mutual Assistance, signed at Ankara October 19, 1939, see League of Nations Treaty Series, vol. cc, p. 167.