Pact of Steel

Pact of Steel

Pact of Friendship and Alliance between Germany and Italy
Galeazzo Ciano, Adolf Hitler and Joachim von Ribbentrop at the signing of the Pact of Steel in the Reichskanzlei in Berlin
Type	Military - Political
Signed	22 May 1939
Location	Berlin, Germany
Expiration	1949 (effectively in 1943)
Signatories	Joachim von Ribbentrop Galeazzo Ciano
Parties	Germany  Italy
Languages	German, Italian

The Pact of Steel (German: Stahlpakt, Italian: Patto d'Acciaio), formally known as the Pact of Friendship and Alliance between Germany and Italy (German: Freundschafts- und Bündnispakt zwischen Deutschland und Italien, Italian: Patto di amicizia e di alleanza fra l'Italia e la Germania) was a military and political alliance between Germany and Italy, signed in 1939.

The pact was initially drafted as a tripartite military alliance between Japan, Italy and Germany. While Japan wanted the focus of the pact to be aimed at the Soviet Union, Italy and Germany wanted the focus of it to be aimed at the British Empire and France. Due to that disagreement, the pact was signed without Japan and, as a result, it became an agreement which only existed between Italy and Germany, signed on 22 May 1939 by foreign ministers Joachim von Ribbentrop of Germany and Galeazzo Ciano of Italy.

Together with the Anti-Comintern Pact and the Tripartite Pact, the Pact of Steel was one of the three agreements forming the main basis of the Axis alliance.^[1] The pact consisted of two parts. The first section was an open declaration of continuing trust and co-operation between Germany and Italy. The second section, the "Secret Supplementary Protocol", encouraged a union of policies concerning the military and the economy.^[2]