US secretary of state says America has suspended foreign assistance to review priorities
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio has stated that while America is not abandoning its commitment to foreign assistance, the process and structure must be reorganised in alignment with national interests.
Rubio emphasised during an interview on the Patriot podcast on SiriusXM that the United States is not abandoning foreign assistance and stated that America "will be involved".
"I believe that foreign aid done right is good for the country, but it has to be done right," he said.
In his opinion, the notion that the US must "spend between US$40 and US$60 billion on foreign aid and all that money is well spent or on things that make sense is absurd".
"There’s a lot of it [money] that isn’t," Rubio stated.
He noted that all foreign assistance needs to be reviewed, as a significant portion is distributed through USAID, while another part goes through the State Department.
"Identify the foreign aid that makes sense, the foreign aid that actually supports our country and that supports our national interests, and continue to do that; and then get rid of the ones that are a waste of money, or in some cases or run counter to our foreign – to our national interest and to our interests around the world," Rubio asserted.
Currently, as he pointed out, the US has suspended all foreign assistance to analyse ongoing projects. Those that prove pointless will be terminated, while those that are beneficial will be preserved and possibly strengthened.
In the early days of its operation, the administration of US President Donald Trump halted international assistance funding through USAID, an agency that, according to Trump, he intends to dissolve.
Following the shutdown of USAID operations, employees of the agency worldwide were placed on administrative leave.
On 7 February, US President Donald Trump stated that corruption within the US Agency for International Development had "reached an unprecedented level" and therefore, it must be eliminated.
That same day, a US judge temporarily allowed approximately 2,700 USAID employees, who had been placed on leave by the Trump administration, to return to work, suspending the implementation of some aspects of the plan to dissolve the agency.