Deals Across a Divide: Agreements Between Rivals and Unlikely Partners, 1872 to 2024

In 1872 Naser al-Din Shah Qajar granted Paul Reuter 70 years of exclusive rights over railroads, tramways and most mines, along with 25 years of control of customs. The shah cancelled it within about a year after Persian outrage, Russian hostility and a lack of British government backing, so the opening bargain on this path barely outlived its signing.

Signed in Washington on 27 January 1958 by William S. B. Lacy and the Soviet ambassador Georgy Zarubin, this agreement set up exchanges in film, dance, music, science, medicine and scholarship between the United States and the Soviet Union. It is a Cold War bargain whose subject was contact rather than borders or arms.

This was a deal between two services of one country. On 6 April 1966 the Army Chief of Staff and the Air Force Chief of Staff agreed that the Army would give up fixed-wing tactical airlift aircraft such as the CV-2 Caribou and CV-7 Buffalo, while the Air Force gave up most claims to helicopters supporting ground troops. Officers on both sides felt they had lost something.

Concluded in 1993 between the European Union and Costa Rica, Colombia, Nicaragua and Venezuela, it gave the four countries shares of a tariff quota for banana exports. It replaced continued litigation after a GATT dispute panel failed to produce an agreed resolution, and it was followed by a 2010 Geneva agreement that settled the remaining disputes.

On 8 October 1998 Prime Minister Keizo Obuchi and President Kim Dae-jung signed a declaration in which Obuchi expressed remorse for suffering caused by Japanese colonial rule of Korea. The two governments also set out cooperation on exchange, the 2002 FIFA World Cup, trade, fisheries and security concerns about North Korea.

Negotiated from 15 to 26 January 2003 under French mediation, this accord aimed to end the First Ivorian Civil War. It brought the government, rebel groups and other factions to one table and set out power sharing and a reconciliation council. The war was declared over on 4 July 2003, but stability proved fragile when rebels refused to disarm in October 2004.

Signed on 6 February 2006 in a Beirut church by Michel Aoun of the Free Patriotic Movement and Hassan Nasrallah of Hezbollah, this memorandum joined a Christian movement and a Shia movement across a sectarian line. It helped bring Aoun to the presidency in 2016, but by the early 2020s the alliance was under strain.

Matteo Renzi and Silvio Berlusconi, normally on opposite sides of Italian politics, signed this pact on 18 January 2014 to reform the electoral system, reduce the powers of the Senate and revise Title V of the Constitution. Voters rejected the constitutional reform in December 2016, and the pact had effectively ended in February 2015.

Finalized in Vienna on 14 July 2015 between Iran, the five permanent members of the Security Council plus Germany, and the European Union, it limited Iranian enrichment and accepted wider inspection in exchange for sanctions relief. It took effect on 20 January 2016, and the United States withdrew from it in 2018 and reimposed sanctions.

Signed on 22 July 2022 at Dolmabahce Palace in Istanbul, this was built as two mirrored agreements so that Ukraine and Russia never signed one document directly together. It opened inspected shipping corridors for grain, more than 1,100 voyages followed, and Russia let it lapse on 17 July 2023.

Signed on 14 October 2022 by four Swedish parties, it made Ulf Kristersson prime minister of a minority government of three parties, with the Sweden Democrats giving external support under a confidence and supply arrangement. It was the first time that party gained direct influence over a Swedish government.

On 1 January 2024 Abiy Ahmed and Muse Bihi Abdi signed a memorandum under which Somaliland would lease about 19 kilometers of coast to landlocked Ethiopia for fifty years, with Ethiopia moving toward recognizing Somaliland. Somalia condemned it, and the later Ankara Declaration of December 2024 did not mention it, leaving its status disputed.