page_title: Polish–Romanian Alliance
section_title: The first treaty
hierarchical_section_title: Polish–Romanian Alliance / The first treaty
context_page_description: The Polish–Romanian Alliance was a series of treaties signed in the interwar period by the Second Polish Republic and the Kingdom of Romania. The first of them was signed in 1921 and, together, the treaties formed a basis for good foreign relations between the two countries that lasted until World War II began in 1939.
context_section_description: The first treaty was the Convention on Defensive Alliance, signed on March 3, 1921 in Bucharest. The treaty, concluded for a period of five years, committed both parties to rendering armed assistance to one another "in case one of the sides is attacked at its present Eastern frontiers". and was aimed at containing Russia (from 1922, the Soviet Union), which had just lost the Polish-Soviet War. Among the diplomats engaged in negotiations were Polish general Tadeusz Rozwadowski and Romanian general Ion Antonescu. Ratifications for that treaty were exchanged in Bucharest on July 25, 1921. The treaty was registered in League of Nations Treaty Series on October 24 of the same year.
  
  In the early 1920s, Romania, along with Czechoslovakia and Yugoslavia, initiated the Little Entente. The alliance's primary goal was to counter Hungary's revanchism, which involved Romania's Transylvania. Romania's Foreign Minister, Take Ionescu, was unable to bring Poland and Greece into the alliance because of border disagreements between Poland and Czechoslovakia. The Romanian representative in Warsaw reported: 
  "Poland's policy towards the Little Entente [...] becomes clearer. Poland will not wish to join it. [...] This attitude may be related to Mr. Beneš's, who seems to have declared that Poland's joining the treaty is not currently possible."
  However, in 1925, the Locarno Treaties were signed in which Germany committed to preserve the status quo in the Rhineland. Germany also signed arbitration conventions with Poland and Czechoslovakia, but the Polish government felt betrayed by France.
  Under the circumstances, the Polish-Romanian treaty's renewal was discussed in the early months of 1926. The Romanian foreign minister, Ion G. Duca, wrote in a telegram to the Romanian ambassador in France:
  "Our treaty with Poland expires on the 3rd of March. The Poles will not renew it in the present form, as they have to take into account the atmosphere created by the League of Nations and the Locarno Treaties. They also do not want to keep an exclusively anti-Russian treaty [...] Poland wishes to obtain our help in case it were attacked by Germany."
caption: Greater Romania (1920-1940)
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