The Colombo Plan: 'a gesture of friendship'

Colombo Plan students are checking out the globe. Credit: dfat.gov.au/about-us/publications/international-relations/60-years-australia-in-malaysia/chapter3-education-exchanges-and-dialogue.html

Not long after the Second World War, more and more countries became independent from their colonizers, and Mao took over China. Australian Prime Minister Ben Chifley realised that many people in Asia were poor and very angry, so he came up with a plan as ''a gesture of friendship”. Historian Ingeborg van Teeseling explains the Colombo Plan, which originated 75 years ago.

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This interview is in Dutch.