This is John Bachelor. The Danube River, speaking to colleague Antonio Kalabashano and Bucharest,

one of the great states of Europe of the Danube River,71 miles from the Black Sea to Germany, the Black Forest of

Germany. At the same time it connects to the Rhine, the Mein, and to Rotterdam. That means you can go from the Black

Sea to Rotterdam, from the Black Sea to the North Sea, internally in Europe, critical to understand why this

is now an issue for the Ukraine war.

Ukraine can use the Danube when open, navigable, without ice, to get its grain to market,

without risking the Black Sea where the Russian fleet is various.

Momentarily, there might be a standoff in the Black Sea.

But going forward, imagining the rest of the century,

the Danube needs development and everything else.

It begins, however, in 1936 with the Montreal Convention.

And here is Antonio Kalabashanu of Geopolitical Futures to explain the Montreal Convention what it means

then 1936 before the Second War, what it meant afterwards that the Soviets elbowed their way into the Montreal Convention,

and what it means now with the Russians asked to leave the room.

They're no longer part of the Danube Commission that took the place of the Montreal Convention.

Here's Antonio Kullabashana to explain the critical nature of the Danube River from the Black Sea to the North Sea.

When the Montreal Convention was designed, it was also the moment when the Danube and actually the Danube Commission was installed

because the Danube River gained geopolitical importance if you will. Without the Danube you would not

have accessed into the Black Sea in the case of an armed conflict.

So the Danube was pretty much the only way

for other players that were not necessarily

aligned with Turkey to get to the Black Sea, which made it very important at the time

...