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donationsEveryone claims to defend international law — until it becomes inconvenient. The 1947 Peace Treaty, which established the Free Territory of Trieste and its international Free Port, is not forgotten. It has been deliberately ignored.
This article is not a call for nostalgia. It’s a warning: silence is no substitute for legality.
Alessandro Gombač
While Xi Jinping in Moscow invokes “historical truth” and the sanctity of international treaties — echoed by Russia in the tones of a wounded superpower — there’s one treaty nobody dares to mention. It hasn’t disappeared, it hasn’t been repealed, it hasn’t been amended. It has been buried alive.
We’re talking about the 1947 Treaty of Peace, the one that established the Free Territory of Trieste and its international Free Port. A treaty signed by the great powers in the immediate postwar era, under the aegis of the United Nations. But as soon as it became inconvenient, they locked it in a coffin of silence. And now, when it’s time to defend treaties against others, they wave it around like a sacred relic. Geopolitical hypocrisy in its purest form.
In 2015, a small NGO from Trieste — Triest NGO — dared to remind the Kremlin that this treaty is still valid. It sent a formal, well-documented submission. The response? [(link)] A masterpiece of fake institutional politeness: “received, registered, forwarded.”
Translation: don’t rock the boat.
But pay attention: Russia has never said Trieste belongs to Italy. Never. It hasn’t written it, recognized it, or ratified it. It preferred not to get its hands dirty — or, more precisely, not to put its hands on the Adriatic. At least not yet.
In 2017, the issue reached the United Nations. Triest NGO submitted five pointed questions [(link)], enough to embarrass any functioning democracy. Five questions no one has dared to answer:
1. When did the Italian Republic acquire full sovereignty over the “Zone A” of the Free Territory of Trieste?
2. When did the twenty-one signatory States of the Treaty of Peace with Italy revise the articles and Annexes (VI, VII, VIII) concerning the Free Territory of Trieste?
3. By which resolution did the Security Council assign the mandate of administration to Italy for Zone A and to (former) Yugoslavia for Zone B? And when and how was this mandate transferred to Slovenia and Croatia?
4. When did the administration entrusted to Italy and Yugoslavia in 1954 become sovereignty?
5. When and how did the Security Council’s responsibility for the independence and integrity of the Free Territory of Trieste cease, and under what procedure?
Legitimate questions. Fundamental ones. And yet, not a single answer. A deafening silence.
But let’s be clear: this isn’t the silence of oblivion. It’s the silence of convenience. Because telling the truth about Trieste would mean having to reconsider decades of occupation, militarization, and exploitation.
The truth today is that neither China nor Russia has ever declared Trieste to be part of Italy. They haven’t — because they can’t. There is no legal act that allows it. And so, they look the other way. They talk of a multipolar order, justice, and legality. But when it comes to Trieste, they look down.
That’s why this treaty isn’t dead. It’s an unexploded mine in the heart of Europe.
All it takes is for someone to stop ignoring it.
All it takes is to break the silence.
Anyone who talks about international law today is called to choose: either defend all treaties — or stop using them as a selective weapon.
And if Xi Jinping truly wants to talk about truth — he should start with Trieste.
Start with those five questions the world keeps ignoring.
Out of fear of having to answer.