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Reference your telegrams 1063 and 1094. (1)
Please reply orally to Herr Molotov's question as follows:
1. As Mackensen reported upon inquiry, he did not make such a definite statement as was reported by the Soviet Chargé in Rome to the Soviet Government. He had, instead, stated during the conversation with the Chargé that in his opinion Germany and Italy were agreed that the Balkans should remain quiet and that a settlement of the unsolved Balkan question could probably be brought about more easily and without the use of force after the war.
2. The Reich Government was gratified that the war had not spread to the Balkans. Germany was, in principle, not interested there territorially but only commercially. Our attitude toward the Soviet Union in this question was finally and irrevocably established by the definite Moscow Agreement.
3. Italy's attitude toward the Balkans was also made unequivocally clear by Mussolini's speech on June 10 to the effect that Italy had no intention of drawing the Balkans into a war.
RIBBENTROP