After the outbreak of World War II, Romania was, despite its neutrality, a target for the hostility of both Germany and the Soviet Union after the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact ("se Romania during World War II"). Gheorghe I. Brătianu attempted to determine more Axis sympathy towards Greater Romania's borders by discussing the matter with the German Foreign Minister Joachim von Ribbentrop—consequently, he was placed under surveillance by Siguranţa Statului, on Carol's direct orders. In 1940, Greater Romania was disestablished through the Soviet annexation of Bessarabia and Northern Bukovina, the cession of Northern Transylvania to Hungary, and that of Southern Dobruja to Bulgaria. Although being, as himself later pointed out, "a Germanophile", Gheorghe I. Brătianu signed his name to a protest regarding the German-enforced Arbitration, and later stated that he had "preferred Germany's hostility to its scorn".