Richard Celeste led a private delegation to India in January for the Center for Strategic and International Studies. Its report, India at the Crossroads, called for the administration to pick India as the 15th country. "The president's program aims to change the course of this epidemic. It cannot do so by ignoring the big challenges.''
Vietnam 15th nation getting U.S. AIDS relief
Critics question why hard-hit India not chosen instead
Sabin Russell, Chronicle Medical Writer
Thursday, June 24, 2004
San Francisco Chronicle
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President Bush has added Vietnam to a list of 14 other nations that will receive direct U.S. assistance under his emergency AIDS relief program, and he cleared the release of a second round of grants totally $500 million for such overseas assistance.
The announcement at a Philadelphia church nevertheless was brushed aside by critics, who say the president has been too slow, and has added too many conditions, in carrying out his pledge of $15 billion over five years for AIDS programs abroad.
Bush also said he was adding $20 million to domestic AIDS spending to spread among 10 states that have waiting lists for patients who cannot afford antiviral drugs.
Vietnam was selected for the president's Emergency Program for AIDS Relief, according to the White House, because of forecasts showing the number of HIV infections there will increase eightfold, to 1 million cases, by 2010.
There also were powerful symbolic considerations. "We're putting a history of bitterness behind us with Vietnam,'' Bush said. "... And Vietnam is cooperative and wants help.''
Eighteen months ago, when the president announced his intention to triple overseas AIDS spending, only 14 countries -- two in the Caribbean and a dozen in Africa -- were to be included. But Congress required that one more nation be added, specifying that it be in a different region.
Vietnam was chosen over several other countries thought to be in contention, including Russia, India and China, all of which have larger numbers of AIDS cases than Vietnam. Bush indicated that some of the potential recipients may not have made their cases strongly enough.
"People have got to say, 'I've got a problem, come and help us,' '' the president said.
India was a contender because it now has an estimated 4.6 million infections, more than any other nation except South Africa. The Indian government estimates that infections could double to 9 million by 2010, while independent assessments warn of as many as 25 million.
"I was disappointed by the decision to go with Vietnam," said Colorado College President Richard Celeste, who was ambassador to India from 1997 to 2001. "I think India was ripe for the kind of collaborative effort this designation would have enabled."
Celeste, a former Democratic governor of Ohio, led a private delegation to India in January for the Center for Strategic and International Studies. Its report, India at the Crossroads, called for the administration to pick India as the 15th country. "The president's program aims to change the course of this epidemic. It cannot do so by ignoring the big challenges.''
