Danube River Conference of 1948

The Danube River Conference of 1948 was held in Belgrade, Yugoslavia, to develop a new international regime for the development and control of the Danube in the wake of World War II. It was the first postwar conference pitting the victorious Allies of the west against the Soviet Union and its allied states of Eastern Europe in which the latter held a majority and were expected to win all points of disagreement between the two sides. As such, it attracted more than the usual share of attention from East and West alike.

The major result of the conference was the ouster of non-Danubian powers from the international agencies that had controlled the commerce and physical care of the river for decades.

Postwar discussion of the Danube River was begun by the United States in 1945 when President Truman proposed at the Potsdam Conference that freedom of navigation should be assured on Europe's inland waterways. Britain and France were concerned with reestablishing their prewar positions as members of the European Commission of the Danube. In 1947, the Paris peace treaties signed with Romania, Hungary, and Bulgaria guaranteed free navigation.The foreign ministers of Britain, France, the USSR, and the United States stipulated that:

Navigation on the Danube shall be free and open for the nationals, vessels of commerce and goods of all states, on a footing of equality in regard to port and navigation charges and conditions for merchant shipping. The foregoing shall not apply to traffic between ports of the same state.

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