# London Memorandum on Trieste (5 October 1954)

URL: https://allhistories.com/croatia/timeline/1954-london-memorandum-on-trieste
Location: London, United Kingdom
Themes: Treaties & Law

The Paris Peace Treaty of 1947 had created the Free Territory of Trieste under the protection of the UN Security Council, but its governor was never appointed. In practice Zone A, including the city of Trieste, remained under British and American military administration, while Zone B, covering north-western Istria, was administered by the Yugoslav army. A crisis in 1953 brought Italian and Yugoslav troops to the border. After negotiations in London, Italy, Yugoslavia, the United Kingdom and the United States signed a Memorandum of Understanding on 5 October 1954. Zone A, with Trieste, passed to Italian civil administration, and Zone B, with minor adjustments, to Yugoslav civil administration. The northern part of Zone B around Koper became part of Slovenia and the southern part, with Buje, Umag and Novigrad, part of Croatia. The arrangement was presented as provisional, and many Italians left Zone B in the following years. The border was made final by the Treaty of Osimo, signed on 10 November 1975, and inherited by Croatia and Slovenia after independence. The settlement ended one of the main disputes of the early Cold War in the Adriatic.

## Why it matters
The memorandum settled the last open border in Istria and fixed the northern Istrian frontier of present-day Croatia.

Ruler at the Time: [Josip Broz Tito](https://allhistories.com/croatia/rulers/josip-broz-tito)

President of the Executive Council of Croatia: Jakov Blažević (League of Communists of Croatia)
Political Secretary of the League of Communists of Croatia: Vladimir Bakarić (Communist Party of Croatia / League of Communists of Croatia)

## Sources
- [Wikipedia — Free Territory of Trieste](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Free_Territory_of_Trieste)
- [Croatian Encyclopedia (Hrvatska enciklopedija)](https://www.enciklopedija.hr/)
- [Wikipedia — Socialist Croatia (period overview)](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Socialist_Republic_of_Croatia)