Economic Cooperation Between the USSR and Nonsocialist Countries

an important part of the foreign economic relations of the USSR and a trend in its participation in international economic cooperation. Nonsocialist countries, both industrialized and developing, account for more than two-fifths (44.4 percent in 1976) of the foreign trade of the USSR and a considerable part of the long-term foreign credits granted and received by the Soviet Union.

Various objective factors have led to an expansion of economic cooperation between the USSR and nonsocialist countries. Chief among these, in addition to the need to develop productive forces, is the interrelationship and complementarity of national economies—with respect to natural resources, industrial and scientific-technological potential, knowledge, and experience—in the system of the international division of labor. These factors have made it mutually advantageous for the USSR and nonsocialist countries to exchange goods and services. The expansion of economic cooperation is made possible by the accelerating internationalization of productive forces in the modern scientific and technological revolution.

The USSR has pursued a consistent policy of developing mutually beneficial economic ties with nonsocialist countries and making rational use of the advantages afforded by the international division of labor. This policy, which is true to the nature of socialism, is based on the directives of V. I. Lenin and the decisions of plenums and congresses of the CPSU regarding the need to strengthen the alliance of peoples that are resisting imperialism, to establish closer links with them, to aid and support such peoples in their liberation struggle, and to expand economic cooperation in order that countries of different social systems may peacefully coexist. (See alsoINTERNATIONAL ECONOMIC COOPERATION.)