"friend" is an attribute of HUMANS, not STATES. We aren't hiring them to be our friends. We are hiring them to manage the day-to-day of the Ports...something they have proven very efficient at. Efficiency is something we need at out ports. The Soviet Union wasn't our friend in the 1940s, but we may not have been able to succeed without them.
Wrong. Look it up. It pertains to both individuals and states. Friend is a noun: can be replaced with a pronoun, and refer to an entity, quality, state, action, or concept
Btw, the Soviet Union was never hired by anyone in America "to manage the day-to-day of the Ports", as you say.