Soviet Aid and the Mongolian Economy: The Global South in CMEA, 1962-1991

Abstract

ABSTRACT This paper examines the economic relations between the Soviet Union, Eastern Europe and Mongolia within the Council for Mutual Economic Assistance (CMEA) from the 1960s to the 1980s. After its accession to the CMEA in 1962, Mongolia not only demanded economic assistance from other member states, but actively sought to incorporate preferential treatments for developing member states into the basic documents of the CMEA. Such a Mongolian attempt culminated in the ‘Comprehensive Program’ of 1971, from which other non-European member states such as Cuba and Vietnam would benefit. In this way, Mongolia co-developed the guiding principles of the ‘North-South’ economic relations within the CMEA.