China will come to dominate Africa and other developing regions if Washington stops supporting the World Bank and similar institutions, US Treasury Secretary (finansminister) Tim Geithner warned Thursday.
With Republicans in Congress threatening to cut foreign aid budgets in a determined attack on government spending, Geithner told the Senate Foreign Relations Committee it was a matter of US national interest to keep supporting the World Bank and other multilateral development institutions.
The proposed cuts to US foreign aid could undo food security efforts in developing nations and spark unrest requiring US military intervention, activists and officials warned Thursday.
Democratic Senator Amy Klobuchar noted that poverty and food shortages helped ignite (udløse) the unrest sweeping the Middle East and North Africa, and said US foreign aid helps keep both in check.
Klobuchar was echoing a warning made earlier this week by Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, who said that the plans to slash the US foreign aid budget would undermine US efforts to stabilize North Africa and the Middle East
