§ Mr. Warrenasked the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs if he can give comparative statistics for the amount of aid given by the United Kingdom and by the Soviet Union to Third world nations.
§ Mr. RifkindNet aid disbursements to developing countries in 1981, the latest year for which the development assistance committee (DAC) has published figures, were $2,195 million from the United Kingdom and $1,661 million from the USSR. These sums represented 0.44 per cent. of the United Kingdom's GNP and 0.15 per cent. of the USSR's.
United Kingdom aid was disbursed to 113 bilateral recipients. Of these, India received 16 per cent. of the United Kingdom's gross aid disbursements. The next five largest bilateral recipients (Bangladesh, Kenya, Sudan, Tanzania and Turkey) received a combined total of 15 per cent. Multilateral agencies received a further 32 per cent.
In contrast, Soviet aid is very heavily biased towards its six main bilateral recipients, which Her Majesty's Government estimate obtained 89 per cent. of gross aid disbursements by the USSR in 1982. Vietnam (34 per cent.), Mongolia (21 per cent.), Cuba (18 per cent.), Afghanistan (10 per cent.), Laos (4 per cent.) and Cambodia (3 per cent.) are the major beneficiaries of the Soviet aid programme. Multilateral aid agencies receive little from the USSR.
Furthermore, if repayments of outstanding aid loans are taken into account, the developing world other than these six client states and Communist developing countries has in the period 1980–82 been repaying annually more to the USSR than was received in new disbursements. The balances in the Soviet Union's favour were $15 million in 1980, $86 million in 1981 and $110 million in 1982. Thus, for the majority of developing countries, the Soviet aid programme is now a drain on the resources available for their development programmes.