A treaty of friendship, also known as a friendship treaty, is a common generic name for any treaty establishing close ties between countries. Friendship treaties have been used for agreements about use and development of resources, territorial integrity, access to harbours, trading lanes and fisheries, and promises of cooperation. Whilst not common, there are some treaties agreeing to some forms of military alliance which have use friendship terminology in their titles,[1] as well as some non-aggression pacts. Additionally, friendship treaties have also signalled an independent relationship with emerging states.[2]
Ancient Greeks distinguished between three different types of friendships between two polities: Philiai, symmachia, and epimachia. Both symmachia and epimachia were types of alliances, with the former committing States to support each other in battle and the latter requiring parties to assist each other if one suffered an invasion. Philiai, then, made the important distinction of denoting friendship between polities but did not give the treaty partners the status of allies. Romans had a similar word amicitia, which was a state of diplomatic relations which could coexist with an alliance, or exist without it. The Romans employed a practice of establishing peace and friendship with polities on its peripheries, though in practice these relationships were usually built on unequal treaties, requiring the neighbour to support Rome militarily, though not necessarily the reverse.
In most cases, the friendship treaties are not based on equal partnership. This is particularly the case in treaties between aboriginal nations and the colonizers, both in America and in the Pacific, throughout the Colonial era. These treaties, often written primarily in the language of the coloniser, manipulated the terminology of friendship by the larger powers in order to create an environment of trust, primarily for the benefit of themselves. While promising protection in return for these benefits, the treaties are more subtle ways of accessing resources for commercial exploitation of smaller nations.
Since the early 2000s, friendship in international relations has been under closer analysis. Whilst friendship terminology had always been used in discourse and diplomacy, the analysis of friendship in international relations had been dismissed as merely being synonymous with good relations. In 2007, Felix Berenskoetter called for the inclusion of friendship analysis into international relations and since then a modest body of literature around the concept has been formed.[3] [4]
In the Soviet Union, Agreement of Friendship, Cooperation, and Mutual Assistance or Treaty of Friendship, Cooperation and Mutual Assistance (Russian: Договор о дружбе, сотрудничестве и взаимопомощи) was a standard Russian language reference to various treaties both internally, between the Soviet Republics, and externally, with countries considered friendly. This terminology is still in use for some post-Soviet states. The terminology was used in many so-called "friendship treaties" the Soviet Union made, but also was used in the Warsaw Pact.[5]
In the United States, these types of treaties are commonly a Treaty of Friendship, Commerce and Navigation. More than a hundred "Treaties of Friendship, Commerce, and Navigation" have been signed since independence. Since 1946, these treaties have dealt with commercial matters concerned with the protection of persons, natural and juridical, and of the property and interests of such persons. They define the treatment each country owes the nationals of the other; their rights to engage in business and other activities within the boundaries of the former; and the respect due them, their property and their enterprises.
| Mosquito Nation | 16 March 1740 | ||
| | 6 February 1778 | ||
| 28 June 1786 | |||
| | Treaty of Tripoli (Treaty of Peace and Friendship between the United States of America and the Bey and Subjects of Tripoli of Barbary) | 4 November 1796 | |
| | Singapore Treaty of Friendship and Alliance[6] | 6 February 1819 | |
| | Crawfurd Treaty (Treaty of Friendship and Alliance between the Honourable East India Company, and the Sultan and the Temenggong of Johore)[7] [8] | 2 August 1824 | |
 Argentina | 1825 | ||
| | 1849 | ||
| Brunei | 23 June 1850 | ||
| | 14 October 1854 | ||
| | 1882 | ||
| | Treaty of Friendship, Commerce and Navigation between Brazil and Japan[9] | 1895 | |
| | Treaty of Friendship between Tonga and the United Kingdom. | 1900 | |
| | 20 October 1904 | ||
| | 11 January 1913 | ||
| | 26 February 1921 | ||
| | 16 March 1921 | ||
| | 8 December 1923 | ||
| | Italo-Ethiopian Treaty of 1928 (Italo–Ethiopian Treaty of Friendship and Arbitration) | 2 August 1928 | |
| | 17 March 1939 | ||
| | 23 August 1939 | ||
| | 18 June 1941 | ||
| | Rio Protocol aka Protocol of Friendship and Peace | 29 January 1942 | |
| | 14 August 1945 | ||
| | 4 November 1946 | ||
| | 8 April 1948 | ||
| | 9 August 1949 | ||
| | 31 July 1950 | ||
| | 28 February 1953 | ||
| | DAFT (Dutch-American Friendship Treaty) | 27 March 1956 | |
| | Treaty of Friendship between the Federation of Malaya and the Republic of Indonesia[10] | 17 April 1959 | |
| | The DPRK-Soviet Union Treaty of Friendship, Cooperation and Mutual Assistance[11] | 6 July 1961 | |
| | Sino-North Korean Mutual Aid and Cooperation Friendship Treaty | 11 July 1961 | |
| | Treaty of Friendship | 1 August 1962 | |
| | Élysée Treaty aka Treaty of Friendship | 22 January 1963 | |
| | August 1971 | ||
| | 19 March 1972 | ||
| | 16 June 1976 | ||
| | 2 November 1977 | ||
| | 12 August 1978 | ||
| | Soviet-Afghan Treaty of Friendship[12] | 12 December 1978 | |
| | Treaty of Peace, Friendship and Cooperation[13] | 1979 | |
| | Treaty of Tarawa aka Treaty of Friendship Between the United States of America and the Republic of Kiribati | 20 September 1979 | |
| | 23 October 1980 | ||
| | 29 November 1984 | ||
| | Kazakh-Russian Agreement on Friendship, Cooperation and Mutual Assistance[14] | 25 May 1992 | |
| | Russia-Tajikistan Agreement on Friendship, Cooperation and Mutual Assistance[15] | 25 May 1993 | |
| | 31 May 1997 | ||
| | 9 February 2000 | ||
| | 16 July 2001 | ||
| | 2008 Treaty of Benghazi[16] | 30 August 2008 |