The Sykes–Picot Agreement , officially known as the Asia Minor Agreement, was a secret agreement between the governments of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland and the French Third Republic, with the assent of the Russian Empire, defining their proposed spheres of influence and control in the Middle East should the Triple Entente succeed in defeating the Ottoman Empire during World War I. The negotiation of the treaty occurred between November 1915 and March 1916, the agreement was signed on 16 May 1916, and was exposed to the public in the The Manchester Guardian on November 26, 1917.