ECAFE in Multilateral Economic Diplomacy of Soviet Union (1946–1950)

The Soviet Union was at the origin of one of the key regional institutions of UN economic diplomacy - the Economic Commission for Asia and the Far East (ECAFE) - but this issue is hardly studied in historiography. The article aims to identify the role of the USSR in the establishment of ECAFE and its work there in 1946-1950. It demonstrates the attitude of Moscow towards multilateral institutions and reveals the specificity of socio-economic diplomacy of the UN in the Far East. Based on the newly revealed documents of the Archive of the Foreign Policy of the Russian Federation, the author analyses the specifics of the development of universal multilateral interaction in the sphere of economy, industry, trade and agriculture in the ECAFE region in the late 1940s. When establishing ECAFE, Moscow sought to transpose the architecture of the UNECE, and, fearing to be left in minority, the USSR argued for limited powers of the Commission. As a result, the ECAFE became an arena for the Soviet-American narrative struggle, and the Soviet Union actively used it to defend its interests regarding the situation in China and Japan. Concerning the state of the industry, the Soviet-American conflicts were most pronounced in the sphere of regional trade (protectionism, tariffs, etc.) and national industrial development of Asian and Far Eastern countries. The Commission’s agricultural domain was blocked, with industrial development issues given priority. The author concludes that, despite skepticism, the USSR preferred to participate in international institutions rather than abstain from joining them.