Despite the unproportionately low level of Soviet economic assistance, Soviet influence in the Third World is quite considerable at present. Taking this fact as a starting point the following article examines the principles guiding relations between communist and developing countries.

The attitude towards development aid of the socialist countries of Eastern Europe, who recently made themselves conspicuous once more by their absence from the Cancún summit, has come under increasing attack from the Third World. Our author takes a critical look at the socialist countries’...