February 6, 1967
2680
FOOD AID TO INDIA
Mr. MUSKIE. Mr. President, India's size alone thrusts the country and its problems into the forefront of our consciousness whether or not we wish it. When a nation comprising a fifth of mankind labors under the handicap of food shortage, brought on largely by natural disaster, and when it sees some of its hopes for bringing a better life for its people momentarily dissolved, it has a very real claim on our hearts and on our sympathy. This is reason enough for the United States and other nations to respond to India's human need to help ameliorate the present food crisis.
But India has another compelling claim upon our attention because of its strategic location in the world. By definition, it is in the interests of the United States and many other nations not to abandon Asia or the world's largest democracy at a time of trial. We all have a stake in maintaining political stability in south Asia. A democratic and unified India assures that an unmanageable power vacuum will not exist in that area. India also reassures other newly independent nations in Asia that they, too, can maintain their independence and can ultimately prosper, despite their present economic and social problems.
If India is to maintain stability and its commitment to preserving a national identity, its Government must be able to assure an adequate food supply to its vast population. It must be able to continue working toward self-sustaining economic growth.
American aid policy, both food and non-food, is designed to supplement India's own efforts to progress toward food sufficiency and a viable economy. In recent years India has moved toward both these goals, and the American contribution toward that progress has been significant. Both the Indian and the American Governments have agreed that the ultimate rationale for foreign aid in India is that India should use that aid to develop her economy until aid is no longer necessary.
At the heart of President Johnson's plan of action for India's food crisis today is the concept of responding through an existing organization – the India aid Consortium chaired by the World Bank. This is the vehicle through which free world donors today plan and coordinate their aid giving to India. This strategy makes eminent sense and offers creative advantages. It gives food aid the same importance as other economic assistance. It allows coordination of food and other help within the framework of India's needs and requirements. It allows Consortium members to help in a variety of ways – with food, cash to buy food, or needed materials to free India's foreign exchange to buy it. Most importantly, it dramatizes to the world that the food-population crisis is not like a flash flood that will automatically recede in the near future. This crisis is a permanent threat to the stability of nations and to the lives of millions of people.
If the world does not mobilize every resource at its command, it will soon grow worse.
Mr. President, I would hope that a great many countries will come forward during this present food crisis to assist the Indian Government in meeting that crisis. I would hope, too, that those countries which have the means to do so will assist India to progress on a broader front toward a viable economy. The presence in the world of a nation of 500 million people which insistently declares that it can, with assistance, solve its many economic problems, deserves both sympathy and positive support. India has given sufficient evidence of progress to warrant our continued assistance in its great endeavor.