How did the Council of Mutual Economic Assistance (CMEA) reflect geo-political division of the world during the cold war ? (Answer in 250 words)

- How did the Council of Mutual Economic Assistance (CMEA) reflect geo-political division of the world during the cold war ? (Answer in 250 words)
Introduction
Founded at Moscow in January 1949, the Council for Mutual Economic Assistance was the economic half of the Cold War's bloc architecture — less an integration project than a device for organising the socialist world around Soviet priorities.

Body
1. Born as an answer: it followed the Marshall Plan (1947) and the OEEC (1948), after Moscow compelled Poland and Czechoslovakia to refuse American aid; with the Warsaw Pact (1955) it mirrored the NATO and EEC pairing.
2. Two world markets: Stalin's Economic Problems of Socialism in the USSR (1952) asserted a separate socialist market, and the Council gave that doctrine institutions.
3. Insulation by currency: trade ran on bilateral clearing and the non-convertible transferable rouble (1964), through the International Bank for Economic Co-operation (1963), sealing members off from world prices.
4. Administered prices as political subsidy: the Bucharest formula, a moving average of world prices, delivered cheap Soviet oil after the 1973 shock — an implicit transfer that purchased loyalty.
5. A planned division of labour: the Basic Principles (1962) and Comprehensive Programme (1971) assigned machinery to the GDR and Czechoslovakia and agriculture to Bulgaria; Romania's 1964 declaration of autonomy was a revolt against being kept agrarian.
6. Infrastructure of dependence: the Druzhba oil pipeline (1964), the Soyuz gas line and a unified power grid physically wired the bloc to Moscow.
7. A global marker of alignment: Mongolia (1962), Cuba (1972) and Vietnam (1978) carried membership beyond Europe, while the Sino-Soviet split kept China out and Yugoslavia stayed an associate.

Conclusion
The Council mapped the division exactly: where a state traded, in what currency and at whose prices announced its camp. Its dissolution in June 1991, days before the Warsaw Pact, confirmed it had been a political structure throughout.