HL Deb 26 October 1987 vol 489 c403WA
Lord Jenkins of Putney

asked Her Majesty's Government:

Whether they are aware that according to the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development the Soviet Union now gives more development aid to poorer countries than the United Kingdom and, as a proportion of national income, substantially more than the United States of America, and whether they will seek to emulate the USSR in this respect.

The Minister of State, Foreign and Commonwealth Office (Lord Glenarthur)

We are aware of the estimates of Soviet Union aid prepared with some difficulty by the OECD. We have no intention of emulating Soviet aid policy: Soviet aid is almost entirely concentrated on a small number of Communist developing countries, it is provided on relatively hard terms and it is used mainly for heavy industrial projects.