On the Road to Socialist Economic Integration? (1974)

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Article I
Aims and Principles

1. The goal of the Council for Mutual Economic Assistance is to contribute to the further intensification and improvement of cooperation and development in socialist economic integration by uniting and coordinating the efforts of the Council’s member countries, [to contribute] to the planned development of their national economies, to the acceleration of economic and technical progress in these countries, to an increase in the level of industrialization in countries with less developed industries, to the uninterrupted growth of labor productivity, to the gradual equalization of the level of economic development, and to a steady increase in the welfare of the peoples in the Council’s member countries.

2. The Council for Mutual Economic Assistance is based on the foundation of the sovereign equality of all of the Council’s member countries.

The economic and scientific-technological cooperation among the Council’s member countries will be implemented in accordance with the principles of socialist internationalism on the basis of respect for state sovereignty, independence and national interests, non-intervention in the countries’ internal affairs, full equality, mutual benefit, and comradely mutual assistance.

Article II
Membership

1. The original members of the Council for Mutual Economic Assistance are the countries that signed and ratified the present charter.

2. Council membership is open to other countries that endorse the Council’s aims and principles and that declare their agreement to assume the obligations included in the present charter.

New members are accepted through a resolution of the Council session on the basis of the countries’ official applications.

3. Any member country may withdraw from the Council after informing the depositary of the present charter. The withdrawal will go into effect six months after the depositary receives notice. The depositary shall inform the Council’s member countries of the receipt of such notification.

4. The members of the Council agree:

a) to guarantee the implementation of recommendations made by the organs of the Council and accepted by them [i.e., the individual members];

b) to give the Council and its officials the necessary support in exercising the functions provided for in the present charter;

c) to provide the Council with any documentation and information necessary for the implementation of the tasks with which it is entrusted;

d) to inform the Council of the course taken in implementing recommendations made by the organs of the Council and accepted by them [i.e., the individual members];