Third World Countries Urge Debt Relief
Third World countries led by Brazil, the world's most indebted developing nation, blamed the industrialized nations in part Monday for perpetuating their poverty. Foreign Minister Roberto de Abreau Sodre of Brazil told the opening session of the 42nd General Assembly that the Third World economic picture was dimming ``due to the lack of progress in international economic relations.'' ``It is ... sad to note that we, American, Asian, African brothers, still suffer from the same horrors and the same desolation which so badly affected our forebears,'' he said, adding, ``hunger ... is endemically spreading throughout the continents.'' A similar theme sounded Monday in West Berlin, where finance ministers of 22 developed or developing countries demanded ``more forceful action'' to help Third World countries repay $1.2 trillion in debts. Brazil, with $121 billion in foreign loans, has been among the strongest Third World lobbyists for debt restructuring and writeoffs. It signed a comprehensive rescheduling agrement last week with its Western creditors. It is critical of the U.S. view that strong economic performance in developed countries would trickle down to help the Third World. Foreign Affairs Secretary Obed Y. Asamoah of Ghana appealed to creditors to write off some debts and reschedule others. He urged nations to work together to raise commodity prices to strengthen African economies. ``In a market place where one group of operators is continually selling its wares cheaply and buying those of others dearly, protection needs be given to the weak and vulnerable operators,'' he said. Ghana had an estimated foreign debt last year of $2.8 billion. Officials of the seven key industrialized nations in the non-communist realm _ the United States, West Germany, Japan, Canada, France, Italy and Britain _ have approved a plan to aid the world's poorest nations, mostly in sub-Saharan Africa. But Latin American countries also would like more help. Argentina's deputy foreign minister, Susana Ruiz Cerutti, called for a ``new strategy of global development,'' including debt forgiveness. Argentina has a $56 billion foreign debt. Prime Minister Gro Harlem Brundtland of Norway said her country spends about 1.1 percent of its gross national product on loans and grants to developing countries, well above the average 0.34 percent by other developed countries. She urged other industrialized nations to increase financial aid, saying development and debt are related Third World crises. ``The industrialized countries of the North must now demonstrate that they see the poverty of the Third World as their common challenge,'' she said.
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