NIXON SEEKS MORE AID

Press, Volume CX, Issue 32459, 20 November 1970, Page 13

NIXON SEEKS MORE AID

(N.Z.P.A.-Reuter—Copyright)

WASHINGTON, Nov. 18.

President Nixon yesterday asked Congress to appropriate ssoom to finance credit sales of weapons to Israel and slssm in military and economic aid to Cambodia.

The requests were < part of a $1035m pack- | age in proposed new i military and economic aid funds for several countries in the Middle East and Asia. Mr Nixon told Congress in a special message that the ssoom in new funds for Israel was required to finance sales of weapons to enable it. to maintain its defence capabilities and to ease economic strains caused by expanded military requirements. 1 Mr Nixon said that the shipments—already authorised but not yet financed by Congress—were necessary to offset large-scale Soviet arms aid to Egypt. He cited the build-up of ' Russian missiles reportedly [ made in the Suez Canal zone since the current Middle East cease-fire. ] Other requests for supple-, mentary funds made by Mr , Nixon were: s3om for military aid for Jor- ■ dan, where, he noted, 1 King Hussein’s troops were recently in conflict with Palestinian guerrillas. issm in military aid to enable Lebanon “to maintain a stable domestic base for responsible en- . gagement in the search for peace.” s6sm in economic aid to South Vietnam —$35m less than he expected earlier this year that the Saigon Government would require. <

slsom in military aid to modernise South Korea’s defence forces in light of his decision to withdraw 20,000 United States troops from Korea.

sloom in military and economic aid for Taiwan, Greece and Turkey, to restore to them funds he had diverted to meet needs in Cambodia.

s3om for two purposes—to increase military aid to Indonesia by sl3m and to make up a shortage of sl7m originally anticipated in payment for military equipment sold to various countries last year. Administration sources said the ssoom requested for Israel would be lent to enable Israel to pay for planes, electronic anti-missile devices and other weapons. The sources said that most

of this equipment was promised to Israel before the build-up of Egyptian missiles in the Suez area, in violation of the Middle East cease-fire.