On Friday, British Foreign Secretary David Lami warned that US President Donald Trump’s movements to freeze foreign aid and dismantle the United States Agency for International Development could see “China and others entering this gap.”
The best diplomat in the United Kingdom pointed to reforms by the previous conservative government in Britain to its external aid program as a “major strategic mistake” that the new Trump administration “must look closely.”
In 2020, the UK government closed and brought it into the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, before reducing the aid budget the following year.
The movements obtained widespread criticism at the time of relief groups and others in the sector, as well as opposition parties in the countries.
“What I can say to American friends is that it is widely acceptable that the UK’s decision with a little preparation for the closure of DFID, to suspend short term financing or give many global partners, was a major strategic mistake,” Lami told the Guardian newspaper.
We have spent years revealing this strategic error. Development is still a very important soft power tool. In the absence of development … I will be very worried that China and others are involved in this gap. “
