Throughout the late 1930s and into the 1940s, Stalin repeatedly challenged the agreements reached by the 1936 convention, asking as early as 1939 for an alternative answer. He proposed joint Turkish and Soviet control of the straits.[8] Upon the signing of the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact with Nazi Germany, Soviet Foreign Minister Vyacheslav Molotov informed his German colleagues of his country's desire to forcefully take control of the straits and establish a military base in their proximity.[9]