Office of the Historian

767.68119/7–545

No. 1369
Proposal by the Soviet Delegation1

[Translation?]
top secret

The Black Sea Straits

(Soviet Proposal)

With regard to the regime of the Black Sea Straits, the Conference found necessary that:

1. The International Straits Convention signed in Montreux shall be abrogated in the proper regular procedure as it no longer corresponds to the present time conditions.

2. The determination of the regime of the Straits—the only sea passage from and to the Black Sea—shall fall within the province of Turkey and the Soviet Union as the states chiefly concerned and capable of ensuring the freedom of commercial navigation and the security in the Black Sea Straits.

3. In addition to other measures the new Straits regime should also provide for the following:

In the interests of their own security and maintenance of peace in the area of [the] Black Sea[,] Turkey and the Soviet Union shall prevent by their common facilities in the Straits the use of the Straits by [Page 1428] the other countries for the purposes inimical to the Black Sea powers (in addition to Turkish military bases the establishment of Soviet military bases in the Straits).

[Babelsberg], 7/22/45.
  1. This question was raised at the Sixth Plenary Meeting, July 22. See ante, p. 256. For the draft entry on this subject submitted by the Soviet Delegation for inclusion in the Protocol, see document No. 1433.↩