Council for Mutual Economic Assistance (Comecon)

Also abbreviated CEMA and CMEA, the organization was established in 1949 to promote economic cooperation among socialist bloc countries and is headquartered in Moscow. Its members as of 1989 included the Soviet Union, Bulgaria, Cuba, Czechoslovakia, German Democratic Republic (East Germany), Hungary, Poland, Mongolia, Romania, and Vietnam. Mongolia, the first non-European member, joined Comecon in 1962 and has traditionally been a supplier of raw materials to the Soviet Union.