Should a country’s first responsibility be to help its own citizens or to help people in need around the world?

International aid is where one country helps another country and it’s citizens. I think that a country’s first responsibility should be to provide aid to other countries as they are less fortunate if they need support.

The first example that supports my opinion is that the country that they provide aid to is likely to pay the favour back, building good relationships. Secondly, the other countries rely on support from others to supply aid that they cannot produce themselves. This could be a problem if they do not receive aid as their situation could go downhill, affecting other areas of life and causing a wider global impact. However, people like busy_alligator disagree with my statement and believe that a country’s citizens are more important than other nations.

Recently, the UK foreign aid budget has been decreased by 0.2% of gross national income. There has been a debate over the UK’s aid spend following this, with some people saying the UK should not be helping people overseas while cutting services at home. They argue problems of poverty and inequality being fueled by conflict and corruption, which makes foreign aid worthless. Others say it is a mark of the UK’s kindness and helps to address the difference in wealth between nations, and I think we should all unite to help others as our country is more developed than most.

In summary, I think that disadvantaged countries need aid more than groups of citizens, therefore the priority should be to help other countries.