Mongolia became a member of the UN in October 1961. It had permanent delegations resident in New York and in Geneva, Switzerland, and was active in the UN Education, Scientific, and Cultural Organization, as well as these groups: the World Health Organization, the Food and Agriculture Organization, the Industrial Development Organization, the International Atomic Energy Agency, the Disarmament Commission, the World Intellectual Property Organization, and the World Meteorological Organization.

In 1989 Mongolia also belonged to the Economic Council for Asia and the Far East, the Interparliamentary Union, the World Peace Council, the International Labour Organization, the World Federation of Trade Unions, the International Telecommunications Union, the Universal Postal Union, the International Association for Mongol Studies, and the International Red Cross. Mongolia was a member of the Joint Institute for Nuclear Research, headquartered in Moscow, and the Organization for the Collaboration of Railways, located at Warsaw, Poland.

In June 1962, Mongolia joined Comecon, an economic association binding the economies of the communist states of Eastern Europe and the Soviet Union. Mongolia and Vietnam were the only Asian states in that association. Afghanistan sent only observers to Comecon meetings. Mongolia participated fully in all Comecon commissions that related to its own economy, and its Eighth Five-Year Plan (1986-90) was adopted only after it was harmonized fully with the economic plans of the other member states (see Socialist Framework of the Economy , ch. 3).

Data as of June 1989