`Stop millions in aid to richer India, China`

London: Former Secretary General of the United Nations Kofi Annan has asked Britain and the European Union to stop providing millions of pounds in aid to wealthy nations like India and China.

He said booming nations such as China, Brazil and India should wean themselves off development funding so it could be targeted at ‘weaker’ parts of the world instead. Annan, a Ghanaian who was the UN secretary general from 1997 to 2006, said not all the countries, which received aid from the UK taxpayers needed it, the Daily Mail reports. “Countries like Brazil, China, India, Ghana, Guatemala and Honduras; some of these countries can fend for themselves,” the paper quoted Annan, as saying. “In fact I have had the chance to suggest to some of them that they should not accept Britain’s aid willingly. They need to say “We are full enough”, so that there will be more money available for the really poor and weaker,” he added. His comments come after International Development Secretary Justine Greening called for the European Union to stop giving aid to relatively rich nations. Britain refuses to fund such countries out of its own aid budget. However, the UK is still sending around 280 million pounds a year to India. ANI