C. The Colombo Plan

IX-6

FIFTEENTH MINISTERIAL MEETING OF THE CONSULTATIVE COMMITTEE ON COOPERATIVE ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT IN SOUTH AND SOUTHEAST ASIA, BANGKOK, OCTOBER 30-NOVEMBER 14, 1963: Report of the U.S. Delegation, Submitted April 27, 1964 (Excerpt) 1

1

2. CONCLUSIONS

a. Appraisal of Work and Accomplishments of Conference From the standpoint of U.S. interests and also those of other member countries, the conference was a distinct success. Member countries continued to manifest their traditional affection for the Colombo Plan and engaged in candid exchanges of views on a wide range of local and regional problems. They also demonstrated a readiness to consider changes in the Consultative Committee procedures which would allow member countries greater scope in the future for the serious examination and discussion of substantive problems affecting economic development in the Colombo Plan region. It is largely for this reason that a United Kingdom proposal for certain procedural changes to improve the mutual analysis of the countries economic development (discussed elsewhere in this report) and the precedent established by a closed, informal, off-the-record, no agenda Ministerial session called by Chairman Thanat Khoman, Foreign Minister of Thailand, evoked the lively interest of many member countries. The further discussions of these and possibly other alternatives that are planned to take place in London over the next few months, could be of considerable importance in influencing the future evolution of the Consultative Committee in the desirable direction of increasingly frank and useful exchanges of views on economic development plans and policies of the regional members based on meaningful joint analy ses of their respective submissions.

1Report of the United States Delegation to the Fifteenth Colombo Plan Consultative Committee Meeting, Bangkok, Thailand, October 30-November 14, 1963 (mimeographed). All Colombo Plan members except Cambodia attended the meeting and were represented by delegations whose size is indicated in parentheses: Australia (7), Bhutan (3), Burma (9), Canada (5), Ceylon (5), India (5), Indonesia (9), Japan (9), Korea (4), Laos (5), Malaysia (13), Nepal (2), New Zealand (6), Pakistan (4), Philippines (7), Thailand (16), the United Kingdom (9), the United States (11), and Viet-Nam (3). Observers attended from the Colombo Plan Bureau, the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development, the Economic Commission for Asia and the Far East, and the United Nations Technical Assistance Board/United Nations Special Fund. The Consultative Committee approved participation and membership of the Maldive Islands in the Colombo Plan, although no observer from the Maldives participated in this meeting. The Asian Productivity Organization was accorded observer status and was represented.

The Consultative Committee approved the recommendations of the Colombo Plan Council Working Party which outlined a series of concrete measures designed to increase training at the technician level within the Colombo Plan region. This represented the final endorsement of an initiative taken by the Australian Government at the previous Consultative Committee meeting in Melbourne 2 with strong support from the United States. Successful implementation of the Council Working Party recommendations could conceivably influence the future evolution of the Colombo Plan Bureau toward a more active role in catalyzing in specific technical assistance fields the bilateral economic development efforts of the member countries and the more intensive utilization of regional resources to solve problems of the area. This year's Consultative Committee Meeting, as earlier meetings, offered a useful and friendly forum for members of the U.S. Delegation to impart a better understanding of U.S. economic development policies directly to Asian Ministers and officials immediately concerned with aid and development responsibilities. It likewise provided an opportunity for the members of the Delegation to learn at first hand from such Ministers and officials of the economic and financial problems currently being encountered in South and Southeast Asia.

More generally, this Meeting tended, as have preceding ones, to facilitate regional cooperation in South and Southeast Asia by promoting greater understanding among the regional member countries of their common development problems. In the absence of Asian regional organizations such as the EEC in Europe, the LAFTA in Latin America, and the projected common market for Africa, meetings such as these of the Consultative Committee offer an important and needed opportunity for cooperation by providing an informal economic discussion forum among countries of South and Southeast Asia along lines popular with the member countries of the Colombo Plan Region.

The Conference took no actions which were inconsistent with the instructions provided to the U.S. Delegation.

b. Recommendations

(1) The United States should continue to participate actively in the annual Consultative Committee meetings substantially along the lines of the past years. Our membership in the Colombo Plan supplies an impetus to regional economic cooperation in South and Southeast Asia and provides an important additional U.S. contact with Asian government ministers and senior officials concerned with economic planning and development responsibilities.

(2) The United States should cooperate closely with the United Kingdom in attempting to obtain agreement of the member countries to introduction of revised procedures at the 1964 Consultative Com

2

See American Foreign Policy: Current Documents, 1962, pp. 995–999.

8 See ante, docs. IV-42 et seq.

4 See American Foreign Policy: Current Documents, 1961, pp. 358-372. B See ante, doc. VIII-5.

mittee meeting in London along the lines of the United Kingdom proposal (as discussed under 7a (1) on page 7 of this report). Such procedures would allow greater scope for penetrating examination and discussion of substantive matters affecting the economic development of the Colombo Plan region and would in particular make possible a more critical joint analysis and review by the member countries, both of the individual country chapter submissions and of overall cooperation and progress in the region as a whole than has hitherto been possible.

(3) Consideration should be given to the desirability of having senior AID/Washington officials concerned with programs or projects in Colombo Plan countries take advantage of the opportunity offered at Consultative Committee meetings to hold private, informal corridor discussions with regional member government ministers and officials present at the meetings. Given the difficulties of capital-tocapital visits by high AID/Washington officials, such discussions could give a sense of contact with senior Washington officials which might assist the AID Missions in their tasks.

(4) Consideration should be given to possible action to focus to a greater degree the attention of the Colombo Plan on the population problem. One possible approach might well entail a somewhat more intensive effort by the U.S. to gain support for selection of this subject as the Special Topic for discussion in 1965. At a minimum, additional action might well be taken to revise further the questionnaire along the lines discussed in paragraph 7a (5) of this memorandum.'

D. Relations With Certain Countries and Concerning Certain Problems of the Area

AUSTRALIA

IX-7

AGREEMENT AND PROTOCOL CONCERNING THE STATUS OF UNITED STATES FORCES IN AUSTRALIA, Signed at Canberra by the American Ambassador (Battle) and the Australian Foreign Minister (Barwick), May 9, 1963 1

Not reprinted here.

7 Not reprinted here.

1

1 TIAS 5349; 14 UST 506. This agreement and the one cited infra referred to the Security Treaty of Sept. 1, 1951, between Australia, New Zealand and the United States; text in American Foreign Policy, 1950–1955: Basic Documents, vol. I, pp. 878-880.

IX-8

AGREEMENT RELATING TO THE ESTABLISHMENT OF A UNITED STATES NAVAL COMMUNICATIONS STATION AT NORTH WEST CAPE IN THE STATE OF WESTERN AUSTRALIA, Signed at Canberra by the American Ambassador (Battle) and the Australian Foreign Minister (Barwick), May 9, Entered Into Force June 28, 1963"

IX-9

AUSTRALIAN-UNITED STATES "RELATIONS... HAVE BEEN A GREAT SOURCE OF ENCOURAGEMENT... TO ME": Toast Made by the President of the United States (Kennedy) at a White House Luncheon for the Prime Minister of Australia (Menzies), July 8, 1963 3

CAMBODIA

IX-10

UNITED STATES

RESPONSE TO THE

CAMBODIAN THREAT TO REJECT AMERICAN FOREIGN AID: Reply Made by the President (Kennedy) to a Question Asked at a News Conference, November 14, 1963

5

4

I regard it [the Cambodian threat to reject foreign aid from the United States] as serious. It is my hope that Prince Sihanouk, who must be concerned about the independence and the sovereignty of his country-he has after all been involved for many years in maintaining that independence-will not decide at this dangerous point in the world's affairs to surrender it. I would think that he is more concerned about Cambodian independence than we are. After all, he is a Cambodian. So my judgment is that in the long run he would protect that independence. It would be folly not to, and I don't think he is a foolish man.

2 TIAS 5377; 14 UST 908.

* White House press release dated July 8, 1963; Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: John F. Kennedy, 1963, pp. 558-559. Prime Minister Menzies arrived in the United States July 2, inaugurated a new series of Thomas Jefferson Memorial Orations at Monticello, July 4, and made an informal visit to Washington July 8-10, 1963.

The reply printed here is taken from p. 845 of Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: John F. Kennedy, 1963.

5 Prince Norodom Sihanouk, Chief of State of Cambodia, had several times in recent public utterances expressed concern over alleged American involvement in the activities of an antigovernment group known as the Khmer Serei (Free Khmer) movement and threatened to terminate U.S. aid for that reason; see post, doc. IX-12.

IX-11

"THE UNITED STATES GOVERNMENT IS IN NO WAY INVOLVED IN THE ACTIVITIES OF THE 'FREE KHMER' GROUP, AND WE DEPLORE ANY ACTIVITIES WHICH WOULD UNDERMINE CAMBODIA'S INDEPENDENCE AND NEUTRALITY": Reply Made by the Director of the Office of News (Phillips), Department of State, to a Question Asked at a Press and Radio News Briefing, November 19, 1963 €

IX-12

6

"THE ROYAL GOVERNMENT [OF CAMBODIA] CONSIDERS THAT THE MOST ELEMENTARY DIGNITY PREVENTS CAMBODIA FROM ACCEPTING THE CONTINUATION OF ANY FORM OF AMERICAN AID, HOWEVER SMALL": Note Handed by the Cambodian Acting Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs (Norodom Phurissara) to the American Ambassador (Sprouse), November 20, 1963 (Excerpt)

As the Government of the United States of America is aware, Prince Norodom Sihanouk, Chief of State, in full agreement with the Royal Government and the Cambodian people, solemnly declared on 5 November 1963 that Cambodia would find itself obliged to renounce the aid accorded it by [the] United States if the radio-broadcasting station of the rebels known as "Khmer Serei", installed in South Viet-Nam, did not end its broadcasts before 31 December 1963. In doing this the chief of the Cambodian state emphasized that [the] United States inevitably bore a considerable share of responsibility in the acts of "pro-Western" subversion directed from a neighboring country which they closely controlled. The public revelations of an emissary of these "Khmer Serei" who has come from South Viet-Nam, have now provided proof that American agents were in fact the direct suppliers of arms, propaganda material, and money to that movement, which was fabricated to destroy Cambodia's national regime, its independence and its neutrality. From now on the Cambodian people cannot understand how official American declarations of respect for our sovereignty and our national policy can find expression in such flagrant American participation in a plot against our people and our liberties.

In response to popular wish and after having studied the new situation created by these very grave revelation[s], the Royal Government considers that the most elementary dignity prevents Cambodia from accepting the continuation of any form of American aid, however small. Consequently, the Royal Government has the honor to inform the American Government that Cambodia asks the cessation of aid accorded her by the United States in the military, economic, technical and cultural fields, and the initiation without delay of bilateral conversations on the liquidation of current programs in accordance with the existing agreements." The Royal Government avails itself of this opportunity to express to the Government of the United States the profound gratitude of the Cambodian people towards the American people, for whom the Cambodian people retains all its friendships. Its generous aid in the course of recent years has contributed effectively to the modernization of our country. We cannot forget that. The Royal Government and the Cambodian people keenly hope that the great people of the United States, whose democratic sentiments they recognize, will understand that

'Department of State files.

7 Department of State files. The text printed here represents a translation prepared by the American Embassy in Phnom Penh.

See footnote 11 to doc. IX-13, infra.