Mohammad Akhter Quotations

As major stakeholders of U.S. foreign assistance, we are very concerned that the interests of the world's poorest remain paramount in the planning process.

This administration has said there are three components to national security - diplomacy, defense and development. We see that diplomacy and defense are well taken care of, but development is the weakest tool in our kit. Yet that's where our long-term security lies.

The issue is, can the mandate change in some way to stop this sort of differentiation between global action and domestic action. We need to erase the line between the two so our resources can be used in a truly global way.

They would have done better to add 25 percent more funding and use that for local purchase.