Tripartite Pact

In the pact the three nations agreed that for the next ten years they would "stand by and co-operate with one another in... their prime purpose to establish and maintain a new order of things... to promote the mutual prosperity and welfare of the peoples concerned". They recognized each other's spheres of interest and undertook "to assist one another with all political, economic and military means when one of the three contracting powers is attacked" by a country not already involved in the war, excluding the Soviet Union.

The pact supplemented the previous German-Japanese Agreement and the Anti-Comintern Pact[?], both of 1936 and helped overcome the rift that had developed between Japan and Germany following the Russo-German Non-Aggression Pact[?] signed in 1939. The agreement formalized the Axis partnership and can be read as a warning the USA to remain neutral or become involved in a war on two fronts.

Hungary and Romania 'joined' the Pact in November 1940. Bulgaria on March 1, 1941, prior to the arrival of German troops. Yugoslavia also joined in March, despite public protests and an attempted coup.