West Alone Not to Blame for Poverty, Soviets Say

Soviet delegates to an international conference on development said Sunday that Moscow will increase aid to the Third World, reversing a longstanding policy of blaming capitalism alone for world poverty.

“Our role in Third World development projects is less than it should be. We aim to correct this,” said Vladimir Khoros, head of the Soviet delegation attending a conference here organized by the Society for International Development, a Rome-based non-governmental group of about 50 countries.

Another Soviet delegate, Tatiana Shaumian of the Academy of Sciences, said her country has given up blaming capitalist forces alone for Third World problems.

“Now we think both socialist and Western countries have common responsibilities for Third World problems of hunger, education and health.”

But she insisted that the Soviet Union will not accept blame for conditions created by imperialist countries in their former colonies and will continue to support liberation struggles.

Khoros, a professor at the Moscow Institute of World Economy, told the four-day conference: “We aim to increase our help to the the Third World, which has been kept over many years at 1.5% of our national income.”

Khoros said that aid, until now channeled mainly to the East Bloc and African nations, will now be extended to countries in Southeast Asia.

Indonesia, Thailand and the Philippines were among those with whom the Soviet Union was considering joint ventures in exploiting resources in its Siberian region.

Khoros said he expects 10% more aid to come from efforts by Soviet leader Mikhail S. Gorbachev to reduce military expenditure through superpower disarmament.