The first contacts of the Kemalists with France and Italy took place in the context of the Allied Conference in London in February-March 1921 and marked the end of the 'common policy' of the Powers regarding the Eastern Question and the failure of the Conference.

These contacts, however, were continued, with a more fortunate conclusion for the Turks. Thus, already in March 1921, the French signed with Kemal a treaty of withdrawal from southeastern Asia Minor, while in October 1921 the Franco-Turkish Franklin-Bouillon Agreement was signed in Ankara. This provided for the details of the departure of the French troops from Cilicia, summoned French teachers to work in Turkish education and French capitalists to develop financial relations with Turkey; there was no mention whatsoever of the Sultan's government in Constantinople.
The Franco-Kemalist agreement disturbed Anglo-French relations, as the British suspected that the Treaty included many more concessions to France. For Greece the treaty has a serious impact, as it delivered a blow both to the military - now Kemal could easily muster all his forces in the Greek front - and the diplomatic plane, as it meant the full isolation of the Greek government, which now had no other buttress to hope for than the limited British support.

The same policy with the French was shared by the Italians, who in their turn signed a treaty with Kemal in March 1921 that signalled their withdrawal from Antalya, conceding their equipment in return for financial privileges in the new Turkish state.

In the summer of 1921 the French and the Italians departed from Asia Minor, leaving to Kemal arms and the ports of the south. Kemal could now deal with the Greeks at his ease.

The Soviet Union steadily opposed military intervention in Asia Minor, considering it an expansionist war instigated by western imperialist forces, and launched her own rapprochement policy towards Kemal. With the Treaty of Alexandropol (December 1920) Soviets and Kemalists concluded the Armenian issue by partitioning Armenian territories between them, after the defeat of the Armenians in Erzouroum and their compulsory capitulation. In March 1921 a peace treaty was signed between the Kemalist regime and the Soviet Union, which arranged the area of the Straits, ignoring the Western Powers and providing for financial and technical aid from the Soviet Union to the Kemalist Turkey. Besides, in October 1921 a new agreement was signed between Kemalist Turkey and the three Caucasian Soviet Republics (Georgia, Armenia, Azerbaijan). The contacts of Kemal with the new Soviet regime constituted a very important factor in regard to the stance of the European powers, as they were afraid that they would be excluded from the new Turkish state. A similar development impeded the economic influence they hoped for.