(FORTUNE Magazine) – The preliminary agreement between United Technologies and West Germany's Daimler-Benz to invest in each other's jet engine companies adds to the growing list of corporations that are expanding global operations through strategic alliances with former foreign competitors. Other recent alliances: GE's NBC, Thomson of France, and Philips of the Netherlands have joined to develop high-definition television. An alliance now in negotiation would link Daimler-Benz and Mitsubishi of Japan. Such deals are a variation of joint ventures, in which corporations form new companies to make a specific product or deliver a specific service. Foreigners have signed morethan 3,000 joint venture agreements in Eastern Europe and the Soviet Union. Among recent free-world joint ventures: Texas Instruments and Japan's Kobe Steel (for a semiconductor plant in Japan); Du Pont and Korea's Han Yang Chemical (for a chemical plant in Korea). Meanwhile, PepsiCo will be making snack foods and soft drinks in India with two partners, a private company and a state government. - P.A.L.