p The period under review was also marked by an important milestone in the development of economic co-operation.

p A Meeting of Representatives of Communist and Workers’ Parties of CMEA Member Countries was held in May 1958. It was also attended by representatives of the Communist Party of China, the Working People’s Party of Vietnam, the Workers’ Party of Korea and the Mongolian People’s Revolutionary Party. The Meeting and also the subsequent 10th and llth sessions of the Council for Mutual Economic Assistance outlined ways for further improving the forms of economic co-operation between fraternal countries and best utilising the immanent advantages of the world socialist economic system.

p The Meeting agreed that now the economic ties between socialist states were considerably stronger and comprehensive, special importance attached to "greater specialisation and co- operation in production between interconnected sectors of the economies of socialist countries".  [228•1  Industrial specialisation and co-operation ensure a saving of material resources and a rise in labour productivity, the most rational use of the natural resources and economic conditions of the socialist countries for accelerating the rates of extended socialist reproduction.

p Improvement in the forms of economic co-operation enhanced the role of the Council for Mutual Economic Assistance. The 12th CMEA session held in 1959 played an essential part in 229 coping with these tasks. It approved a CMEA Charter which came into force on April 13, 1960. The Charter emphasises the resolve of members to continue developing all-round economic co-operation on the basis of consistent implementation of the international socialist division of labour for the sake of building socialism and communism in their countries and ensuring durable peace the world over. It defines the aims of the Council as follows: to promote, by pooling and co-ordinating efforts, the planned development of national economies, acceleration of economic and technological progress, greater industrialisation in less-industrially advanced countries, continuous growth of labour productivity and higher living standards.

p The Charter recorded the crystallised principles of the Council’s activities. This international organisation operates on the basis of equality of all members, respect for sovereignty and national interests, mutual benefit and comradely mutual assistance. These principles are reflected specifically in Article 4 of the Charter which reads:

p “All recommendations and decisions in the Council are adopted only with the consent of the interested member countries of the Council; moreover, every country has a right to declare its interest in any question examined in the Council.

p “Recommendations and decisions do not extend to countries which declare their non-interest in the given question. But each of these countries may subsequently accede to the recommendations and decisions adopted by the other member countries.”  [229•1 

p While at the initial stage of the world socialist system economic ties were effected chiefly through bilateral trade, scientific and technical exchange, after the establishment of CMEA and particularly in the period under review multilateral cooperation gained ground. In 1956 CMEA began to co-ordinate national economic plans; specifically the main indicators for various economic sectors were co-ordinated for 1956-1960. In 1956 and 1957 the Council set up standing commissions on the engineering industry, geology, the oil and gas industry, iron and steel and non-ferrous metals industries, chemical industry, agriculture, exchange of electric power, and foreign trade. The commissions facilitate application of the principles of socialist international division of labour, coordination of national economic plans and industrial co-operation.

p Regular consultations between Party and Government leaders on key economic and political problems began to play an important part.

p All these measures ensured greater division of labour, industrial specialisation and co-operation and further improvement of methods for making the socialist economy more efficient.

p In this period, too, a number of People’s Democracies (Czechoslovakia, Bulgaria and Rumania) completed the construction of socialist foundations. These countries now launched the full-scale building of socialist society. The German Democratic Republic, in fact, was completing this stage.

p Achievements of the fraternal countries in socialist construction promoted the steady growth in the might and economic potential of the world socialist system. In 1960 the socialist countries 231 accounted for some 36 per cent of world industrial output; about 50 per cent of the production of coal, steel, pig iron, and some other items.

p Soviet economic ties with Asian socialist countries were extensively developed during this period. In particular, besides the active assistance of the Soviet Union to China in building more than 200 large industrial enterprises and creating such important new industries as the automobile, tractor, aircraft, power, heavy and precision engineering, precision instruments and radio equipment industries, the USSR handed over to the People’s Republic of China between 1954 and 1963 more than 24,000 sets of scientific and technological documentation, including over 1,400 designs of large enterprises. The Soviet Union did much, too, to bolster China’s defences, build up a modern defence industry, to train engineers, technicians and skilled workers, and furnished long-term credits totalling 1,816 million rubles on favourable terms.

p It should be noted, however, that at the end of the 1950s Mao Tse-tung and his group charted a special course in home and foreign policy which ran counter to the principles of proletarian internationalism, the basic laws of building socialism, Marxism-Leninism, and the general political line of the countries in the socialist community and the world communist movement.

To sum up, in the period between 1957 and 1960, despite the continued efforts of international imperialism both in Europe and in Asia to intensify the provocative cold war policy, the international positions of the socialist countries were considerably strengthened. Unity of international 232 action consolidated the positions of the forces of socialism, the national liberation movement, democracy and peace, and facilitated the development of the world revolutionary process.