What does the United States Agency for International Development mean for Canada and Western allies?

A series of experts warned of the closure of the US government’s foreign aid agency – the United States Agency for International Development – could have a tremendous impact on Western allies and their ability to influence developing countries.

It can also create a void that would like to fill China – the type that the Trump administration was complaining of, the last of which was in Panama where the government was preparing to sign the infrastructure campaign to sign Beijing, known as the Belt and Road Initiative.

Over the past two weeks, dozens of senior US Agency for International Development have been placed on leave, thousands of contractors have been accelerated and billions of dollars were frozen from humanitarian assistance to other countries.

The Technology billionaire, Elon Musk, described the United States Agency for International Development as a “criminal organization” that will be closed after senior officials refused to hand over the classified data to the government efficiency agency established by the new US administration, which is run by Musk.

Late on Tuesday, the United States Agency for International Development announced that almost all employees abroad – civil service and external service employees – will be placed on a valid vacation from Friday and that returning employees outside the United States will occur within a month.

With more than $ 40 billion in credits, the US Agency for International Development is the definition of soft power, which creates influences in developing countries where Washington needs partners. It was created during the Cold War in 1961 by then President John F. Kennedy, and considered the agency a way to counter the influence of the Soviet Union.

Today, its supporters argue that its mission is to reduce Chinese influence, especially in the global south, which was flowing to join the belt and road plan.

The United States’s withdrawal will immediately put pressure on other countries such as Canada, which according to federal government estimates spent $ 15.5 billion-through 21 organizations-on humanitarian efforts 2022-23, to interfere in the void. Such a scenario will be revealed against the political background – in this country – from a governor to cut off the foreign aid budgets after the upcoming elections.

Experts say that the Trump administration’s actions are already physical.

“The US Agency for International Development has already disappeared from some landscapes, only through the executive order law to stop work in the current programs,” said Nam Unger, director of the Sustainable Development and Flexibility Initiative at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington.

UNGER said that societies that benefit from health programs and nutritional assistance feel especially influenced, adding that the risk of discounts will get worse over time.

“They will affect and distort the United States in the United States, but they will also have effects over time for us-economic and national security, given the threats of national development around the world, with conflict, corruption, and trafficking in people and drugs, he said.

Among the places where the freezing of aid is more difficult in Ukraine, where the United States Agency for International Development has invested more than $ 874 million in the United States to maintain Ukraine’s economy during the war and lay the basis for a strong and family economic recovery at the end of the war.

“The cost of decline in humanitarian obligations comes” with clear costs at home and abroad. “.

American security, stability and prosperity have been linked since the depths of the Cold War to development developments all over the world.

“Under the long relations that have partner countries around the world weaken America’s diplomacy and its ability to compete with other global powers such as Russia and China for critical resources, markets and geological alliances against extremist extremists or other threats of American national interests,” she said. In a statement.

Ridel also asked whether the administration’s transfer to the dismantling of the United States Agency for International Development is legally possible without the approval of Congress.

UNGER said from a political geopolitical perspective that opens the door for China to intervene, if he has economic ability.

UNGER said: “If the United States is waiving the stadium or the battlefield, then if you are going to work – with regard to soft power and economic impact in the form of foreign aid and development financing – this is null.” “China and others will try happily filling it.”

US President Donald Trump, before his inauguration, will not rule out the use of military force in both Panama and Greenland to enhance American interests.

The American Agency for International Development has been active in Panama for decades, but recently in facilitating the implementation of the justice system reforms.

The country was also firmly destroyed by Beijing, as companies from the mainland of China and Hong Kong acquired the main ports facilities. Chinese national security laws can require companies, including Hong Kong companies, to help the Chinese government in collecting intelligence and military operations.

In 2018, Panama decided to join the Belt and Roads Initiative in China – a policy that the government of that country now indicated is ready to end after the recent visit of Foreign Minister Marco Rubio.

Panama channel, which was built by the United States more than a century ago, is fully owned by Panama since 1999.

Trump has complained of increasing the Chinese effect on the strategic waterway.

Likewise, China was interested in flirting with Greenland, North Pole island, rich in rare minerals.

China bought rare mineral mines, opened a satellite and research station, tried to provide bids to build and finance a huge project for three -sided infrastructure and tried to buy a port in deep waters.

The United States has used soft energy to either prevent or slow down the projects – something that can give up the foregoing.

“I think over time, the (new) administration will try to explain it in a more cohesive way of its national security and foreign policy,” said UNGER.