A treaty of friendship, also known as a friendship treaty, is a common generic name for any treaty establishing close ties between countries. Friendship treaties have been used for agreements about use and development of resources, territorial integrity, access to harbours, trading lanes and fisheries, and promises of cooperation. Whilst not common, there are some treaties agreeing to some forms of military alliance which have use friendship terminology in their titles, as well as some non-aggression pacts. Additionally, friendship treaties have also signalled an independent relationship with emerging states.

History Ancient Greeks distinguished between three different types of friendships between two polities: Philiai, symmachia, and epimachia. Both symmachia and epimachia were types of alliances, with the former committing States to support each other in battle and the latter requiring parties to assist each other if one suffered an invasion. Philiai, then, made the important distinction of denoting friendship between polities but did not give the treaty partners the status of allies. Romans had a similar word amicitia, which was a state of diplomatic relations which could coexist with an alliance, or exist without it. The Romans employed a practice of establishing peace and friendship with polities on its peripheries, though in practice these relationships were usually built on unequal treaties, requiring the neighbour to support Rome militarily, though not necessarily the reverse.

In most cases, the friendship treaties are not based on equal partnership. This is particularly the case in treaties between aboriginal nations and the colonizers, both in America and in the Pacific, throughout the Colonial era. These treaties, often written primarily in the language of the coloniser, manipulated the terminology of friendship by the larger powers in order to create an environment of trust, primarily for the benefit of themselves. While promising protection in return for these benefits, the treaties are more subtle ways of accessing resources for commercial exploitation of smaller nations.

Since the early 2000s, friendship in international relations has been under closer analysis. Whilst friendship terminology had always been used in discourse and diplomacy, the analysis of friendship in international relations had been dismissed as merely being synonymous with good relations. In 2007, Felix Berenskoetter called for the inclusion of friendship analysis into international relations and since then a modest body of literature around the concept has been formed.

Terminology

In the Soviet Union, Agreement of Friendship, Cooperation, and Mutual Assistance or Treaty of Friendship, Cooperation and Mutual Assistance (Russian: Договор о дружбе, сотрудничестве и взаимопомощи) was a standard Russian language reference to various treaties both internally, between the Soviet Republics, and externally, with countries considered friendly. This terminology is still in use for some post-Soviet states. The terminology was used in many so-called "friendship treaties" the Soviet Union made, but also was used in the Warsaw Pact.

In the United States, these types of treaties are commonly a Treaty of Friendship, Commerce and Navigation. More than a hundred "Treaties of Friendship, Commerce, and Navigation" have been signed since independence. Since 1946, these treaties have dealt with commercial matters concerned with the protection of persons, natural and juridical, and of the property and interests of such persons. They define the treatment each country owes the nationals of the other; their rights to engage in business and other activities within the boundaries of the former; and the respect due them, their property and their enterprises.

List of friendship treaties

+ List of Friendship Treaties Signatories Treaty Date signed 3 July 1710 Mosquito Nation Treaty of Friendship and Alliance 16 March 1740 Treaty of Amity and Commerce (United States–France) 6 February 1778 Treaty of Amity and Commerce (Prussia–United States) 10 September 1795 Moroccan–American Treaty of Friendship 28 June 1786 Treaty of Tripoli (Treaty of Peace and Friendship between the United States of America and the Bey and Subjects of Tripoli of Barbary) 4 November 1796 Singapore Treaty of Friendship and Alliance 6 February 1819 Crawfurd Treaty (Treaty of Friendship and Alliance between the Honourable East India Company, and the Sultan and the Temenggong of Johore) 2 August 1824 Treaty of Friendship, Commerce and Navigation Between Argentina and the United Kingdom 1825 Hawaii-United States Treaty of Friendship, Commerce and Navigation 1849 Brunei Brunei–United States Treaty of Peace, Friendship, Commerce and Navigation 23 June 1850 Anglo-Japanese Friendship Treaty 14 October 1854 (Zollverein) Friendship, Commerce and Navigation Treaty Between the German Zollverein and the Argentine Confederation 19 September 1857 Treaty of Amity and Commerce between Prussia and Japan 24 January 1861 2 September 1861 (Zollverein) Siam Friendship, Commerce and Navigation Treaty Between the German Zollverein and Thailand 7 February 1862 (Zollverein) 31 October 1867 (Zollverein) 20 February 1869 (Zollverein) 28 August 1869 Anglo–Serbian Treaty of Friendship and Commerce 7 February 1870 (Zollverein) 13 June 1870 11 June 1873 18 May 1875 1 November 1876 Samoa 24 January 1879 10 February 1880 United States–Korea Treaty of 1882 22 May 1882 5 December 1882 26 November 1883 20 December 1885 22 January 1886 28 March 1887 20 September 1887 12 December 1887 26 August 1890 23 July 1892 Treaty of Friendship, Commerce and Navigation between Brazil and JapanNinomiya, Masato O centenário do Tratado de Amizade, Comércio e Navegação entre Brasil e Japão November 18, 2011 1895 4 February 1896 28 April 1897 Treaty of Friendship between Tonga and the United Kingdom. 18 May 1900 Treaty of Peace and Friendship (1904) 20 October 1904 7 March 1905 26 January 1909 Treaty of friendship and alliance between the Government of Mongolia and Tibet 11 January 1913 Russo-Persian Treaty of Friendship 26 February 1921 Treaty of Moscow (1921) 16 March 1921 Mongolia Agreement between the Government of the RSFSR and the People's Government of Mongolia on the Establishment of Friendly Relations between Russia and Mongolia 5 November 1921 Treaty of Friendship, Commerce and Consular Relations between Germany and the United States of America 8 December 1923 Treaty between the RSFSR and the Tannu-Tuvan People's Republic on the Establishment of Friendly Relations 22 June 1925 (Treaty of Friendship between Bulgaria and Turkey) 18 October 1925 Treaty of Berlin (1926) 24 February 1926 Treaty of Friendship and Mutual Recognition 16 August 1926 Italo-Ethiopian Treaty of 1928 (Italo–Ethiopian Treaty of Friendship and Arbitration) 2 August 1928 Portuguese–Spanish Treaty of Friendship and Non-Aggression 17 March 1939 Pact of Friendship and Alliance between Germany and Italy 22 May 1939 German–Soviet Treaty of Friendship, Cooperation and Demarcation 23 August 1939 German–Turkish Treaty of Friendship 18 June 1941 Rio Protocol aka Protocol of Friendship and Peace 29 January 1942 Sino-Soviet Treaty of Friendship and Alliance 14 August 1945 Treaty of Friendship, Commerce and Navigation between the United States of America and the Republic of China 4 November 1946 Finno-Soviet Treaty of 1948 8 April 1948 1949 Indo-Bhutan Treaty of Peace and Friendship 9 August 1949 1950 Indo-Nepal Treaty of Peace and Friendship 31 July 1950 Balkan Pact (1953) 28 February 1953 Warsaw Pact (Treaty of Friendship, Cooperation and Mutual Assistance) 14 May 1955 Treaty of Amity, Economic Relations and Consular Rights 15 August 1955 Treaty for Friendship and Cooperation Between the GDR and the People's Republic of China 25 December 1955 DAFT (Dutch-American Friendship Treaty) 27 March 1956 Treaty for Friendship and Cooperation Between the GDR and the Mongolian People's Republic 22 August 1957 Treaty of Friendship between the Federation of Malaya and the Republic of Indonesia 17 April 1959 The DPRK-Soviet Union Treaty of Friendship, Cooperation and Mutual Assistance 6 July 1961 Sino-North Korean Mutual Aid and Cooperation Friendship Treaty 11 July 1961 Treaty of Friendship 1 August 1962 Élysée Treaty aka Treaty of Friendship 22 January 1963 Indo-Soviet Treaty of Friendship and Cooperation August 1971 Indo-Bangla Treaty of Friendship, Cooperation and Peace 19 March 1972 Basic Treaty of Friendship and Cooperation 16 June 1976 Treaty of Friendship and Cooperation between Spain and Portugal 2 November 1977 Treaty for Friendship and Cooperation Between the GDR and the Socialist Republic of Viet Nam 4 December 1977 Treaty of Peace and Friendship between Japan and China 12 August 1978 Soviet-Afghan Treaty of Friendship12 December 1978 Treaty for Friendship and Cooperation Between the GDR and the People's Republic of Angola 24 February 1979 Treaty for Friendship and Cooperation Between the GDR and the People's Republic of Mozambique 24 February 1979 Treaty of Peace, Friendship and CooperationPobzeb Vang, Five Principles of Chinese Foreign Policies 1979 Treaty of Tarawa aka Treaty of Friendship Between the United States of America and the Republic of Kiribati 20 September 1979 Treaty for Friendship and Cooperation Between the GDR and Socialist Ethiopia 15 November 1979 Treaty for Friendship and Cooperation Between the GDR and the People's Democratic Republic of Yemen 15 November 1979 Treaty for Friendship and Cooperation Between the GDR and the People's Republic of Kampuchea 18 March 1980 Treaty for Friendship and Cooperation Between the GDR and the Republic of Cuba 18 March 1980 Treaty of Friendship and Cooperation between Spain and Equatorial Guinea of 1980 23 October 1980 Treaty for Friendship and Cooperation Between the GDR and the Democratic Republic of Afghanistan 21 May 1982 Treaty for Friendship and Cooperation Between the GDR and the Lao People's Democratic Republic 22 September 1982 Treaty for Friendship and Cooperation Between the GDR and the Democratic People's Republic of Korea 1 June 1984 Treaty of Peace and Friendship of 1984 between Chile and Argentina 29 November 1984 Treaty of Neighbourhood, Partnership and Cooperation 5 July 1991 Neighborhood agreement () on Friendship, Basics of relationships, Territorial integrity and Cooperation 20 January 1992 Kazakh-Russian Agreement on Friendship, Cooperation and Mutual Assistance 25 May 1992 Russia-Tajikistan Agreement on Friendship, Cooperation and Mutual Assistance 25 May 1993 Russian–Ukrainian Friendship Treaty 31 May 1997 9 February 2000 2001 Sino-Russian Treaty of Friendship 16 July 2001 2008 Treaty of Benghazi 30 August 2008 1 August, 2017 Kensington Treaty (Treaty between the United Kingdom […] and […] Germany on Friendship and Bilateral Cooperation) 17 July 2025

See also Treaty Commercial treaty List of treaties

References