Statement by the President on the 10th Anniversary of the Colombo Plan.

I WANT to pay tribute today on its tenth anniversary to the Colombo Plan for cooperative economic development in South and Southeast Asia, a great international organization of which the United States has proudly been a member almost from its inception. The Colombo Plan is being honored at this time in some twenty countries which make up its membership. The countries of South and Southeast Asia which comprise the Colombo area are all struggling to free themselves from the ageless burden of poverty. Their economic development is the central objective of the Colombo Plan. They are helped in this by the non-area members--Australia, New Zealand, Japan, Canada, the United Kingdom and the United States.

The Colombo Plan seeks through friendly consultation to aid South and Southeast Asian countries in their individual efforts to develop themselves and encourages the fullest possible cooperation among all members to achieve this objective.

While the Colombo Plan is not in itself an operating agency, it nourishes intimate multilateral consultations on development problems and plans and stimulates practical economic cooperation among its members through bilateral arrangements. The Colombo Plan has become a symbol of the economic aspirations of hundreds of millions of people in South and Southeast Asia.

On behalf of the United States I congratulate the Colombo Plan on its first decade of dedicated service to the noble cause of a better life for the peoples of Asia. We are proud to be associated in this effort. It illustrates well the type of self-reliance and mutual cooperation--learning to help each other--which the United States particularly endeavors to further through its own foreign aid program. We hope the constructive influence of the Colombo Plan will grow with the years.