§ Mr. Freesonasked the Prime Minister if she will make it her policy during the Bonn economic summit to seek to write off existing official aid debts and offer more generous and longer term rescheduling of other outstanding Government debts of the 50 poorest countries.
§ The Prime MinisterNo. Britain has already been generous. Forty-four of the fifty poorest countries have no official aid debts to the United Kingdom. Of the remainder, India now receives local costs aid up to the total official aid loan repayments due each year. The outstanding amount from the others is only £5.3 million. The terms of rescheduling for other outstanding official debts are usually decided multilaterally in the Paris club, where Britain has supported generous treatment of many of the poorest debtors.