Danube River Conference of 1948

[For Russia, the Danube has always been] the life-line of the Empire! It is also the symbol of her historic Drang nach Westen — an extension of the Czarist policies originating in the 18th Century.

— American historian.^{[1]: 27–28}

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.^{[2]: 46–47}

The major result of the conference was known as the Belgrade Convention, which ousted the non-Danubian powers from the international agencies that had controlled the commerce and physical care of the river for decades.^[2]: 55