The United States has frozen its foreign aid, with the exception of that provided to Egypt and Israel, as well as emergency food aid, while it carries out a complete review to see whether it is in line with the policy that Donald Trump intends to pursue.
‘No new funds will be committed (...) until every proposed new allocation or extension has been reviewed and approved’ in line with President Donald Trump's agenda, says an internal circular from US Secretary of State Marco Rubio, sent to State Department staff and consulted by AFP on Friday.
Emergency food aid is exempt, which should benefit the Gaza Strip in particular following the ceasefire between Israel and Palestinian Hamas.
But the circular makes no mention of Ukraine, which under the former Biden administration received billions of dollars in aid to defend itself against Russia.
The circular stems from the decree signed by President Trump on Monday, the day of his inauguration, ordering a 90-day freeze on US foreign aid.
Israel and Egypt are among the biggest recipients of billions of dollars in US military aid.
In his memo, the Secretary of State argues that it is impossible for the new administration to assess whether existing foreign aid commitments ‘are not duplicative, are effective, and are consistent with President Trump's foreign policy’.
In his executive order on Monday, President Trump said that ‘the US foreign aid industry and bureaucracy are not aligned with American interests and, in many cases, are contrary to American values’.
He did not cite any examples, but as soon as he returned to the White House he set about dismantling federal programmes to promote diversity in the United States.
In concrete terms, the presidential decree orders a 90-day pause in US aid in order to assess ‘the effectiveness of the programmes and their consistency with US foreign policy’.
Mr Rubio's circular authorises the State Department to make other exceptions on a case-by-case basis.
Marco Rubio, who was the first -- and still the only -- member of the new Trump administration to take office on Tuesday, sent out other internal memos in the same vein, freezing in particular the reception of refugees awaiting asylum in the United States.
He said he wanted to put Donald Trump's slogan ‘America First’ into practice, stressing that every dollar spent by the United States should make America ‘safer’, ‘stronger’ and ‘more prosperous’.
According to official figures, the United States is the world's largest provider of humanitarian and development aid, devoting around 1% of the federal government's budget to this purpose, something that former Democratic President Joe Biden welcomed.
Biden had requested some 42.8 billion dollars for the 2025 fiscal year (October to September) to fund foreign aid managed by the State Department and the US Agency for International Development (USAID).
Several NGOs have expressed alarm at the impact of this freeze, particularly on humanitarian and development aid.
‘The suspension of humanitarian aid has cast uncertainty over all American humanitarian and development aid programmes, preventing aid professionals from planning or acting effectively’, deplored the head of Oxfam America, Abby Maxman, in a press release.
According to her, this pause ‘could have vital consequences for countless children and families in crisis’.
With AFP.
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