For example, one of the side letters signed by U.S. Trade Representative Carla Hills and then-Deputy Minister of Foreign Economic Relations Yuri N.

CENTERFORSECURITYPOLICY: The U.S.-Soviet Trade Agreement: Overtaken By Events

Vietnam's overriding interest in its foreign relations has been to accelerate its economic development.

ECONOMIST: We want to be your friend

Britain's Foreign Office, meanwhile, has curtailed diplomatic and economic relations with Iran.

ECONOMIST: Iran's seizure of British sailors raises the stakes

In an effort to sway debate now under way on the Farm Bill, Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson Thursday blasted a tax proposal put forward by Democrats, saying it could damage foreign investment in the U.S. and harm America's economic relations with its most important trading partners.

FORBES: Down On The Farm Bill

Mr. RAY TAKEYH (Council on Foreign Relations): He might be able to actually, under the banner of economic justice, further expand Iran's bloated bureaucracy, further expand Iran's social and economic subsidies, which are a drain on those resources, and actually obstruct a sort of economic privatization program that calls for lessening of the role of government.

NPR: Iran's President Sets Out to Ease Unemployment

Diplomatic relations between Vietnam and the United States had normalized, and direct foreign investments were beginning to drive economic growth there.

FORBES: Magazine Article

Mr Khatami's undeclared foreign-policy goal is not so much to improve relations with Russia as to reopen ties first economic, then political with the United States.

ECONOMIST: Iran and Russia

Scott Snyder, a senior fellow for Korea studies at the Council on Foreign Relations, said that the relative success of Kaesong in comparison to North Korea's weak homegrown economic and other achievements may have represented an uncomfortable truth that the regime opted to eliminate.

WSJ: Last Workers Pull Out of Kaesong Plant as North-South Korea Ties Fray