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Yahoo
14-02-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Amid foreign aid pause, lawmakers alarmed China could fill void
Lawmakers from both political parties invoked China as a potential winner in international development as the U.S. reviews its foreign assistance programs and non-governmental organizations funded largely by American grants await answers on the fate of funds critical to their missions abroad. An official for the demining authority in Cambodia on Thursday said he received a notification to 'demobilize staff members and operational teams under the support of the U.S.' starting on March 1, calling the loss of the partnership a 'critical situation.' Grantees in Cambodia were ordered to stop work via an email on Jan. 26 from the State Department office which has since 1993 dispersed grants globally to remove landmines and unexploded ordnance. MORE: All USAID humanitarian work has effectively stopped, current and former officials say A State Department spokesperson told ABC News that 'each program is undergoing a review with the goal of restructuring assistance to serve U.S. interests,' including the demining grants from the Office of Weapons Removal and Abatement. In its 2024 annual report, the office said the U.S. was the world's 'top supporter' of weapons destruction projects, including landmine clearance. U.S. grants fund 30% of demining work in Cambodia, a vital nationwide effort in the southeast Asian country to remove landmines from its brutal civil war and unexploded bombs dropped by the U.S. in the Vietnam War, said Bill Morse, chairman of Cambodian Self-Help Demining. 'We'll be clearing unexploded ordnance here for 100 years,' he said to ABC News via video call from Cambodia. MORE: Here are all the agencies that Elon Musk and DOGE have been trying to dismantle so far In a statement, Heng Ratana, the director of the Cambodian Mine Action Centre (CMAC), which oversees demining operations in the country, pointed to other countries in Asia -- such as China and Japan -- and western nations like Germany and Canada who continue to fund the Cambodian authority on demining. CMAC estimates the country is laden with as many as 4 to 6 million landmines and other unexploded ordnance. Nearly 20,000 people have been killed -- and 10,000 more have had amputations because of their injuries -- in explosions, according to HALO Trust, a leading NGO. Non-governmental organizations that work in coordination with CMAC are looking for new funding sources amid uncertainty during the freeze, said Morse, whose NGO has received grants from the State Department since 2009. 'We'll take money from anyone if they help us clear landmines. I'm not going to be picky about it,' Morse said. Demining is viewed as a key link between the U.S. and Cambodia, a developing nation that has increasingly relied on China for infrastructure investments and is an ally of Beijing. Demining 'is a highly visible demonstration of American support for a country,' Morse said. 'We fly the American flag in the field. Our uniforms carry the American flag on it. The helmets that we wear have the American flag on it.' 'Most people in the country, in the countryside, what they know of the United States is what we're doing in the field ... They've never seen an ambassador in their life. I may be the only American they ever meet.' China, which has been a partner on demining efforts in Cambodia, dispersed $4.4 million to the demining authority last week, CMAC announced. Democrats and Republicans on the House Foreign Affairs Committee sparred over U.S. foreign assistance in a Thursday hearing focused on USAID programs, which Chairman Brian Mast, R-Fla., said are 'indefensible' and 'literally betray America.' 'Your money would've been better off if it had simply been thrown into a fireplace,' Mast said to open the hearing. Yet members from both parties pointed to the rising influence of China, alarmed that China could open a spigot of cash for international aid in areas where U.S. programs cease. MORE: Aid groups tell judge that Trump's pause on foreign aid has 'devastated' their operations 'It counters China,' former Republican Rep. Ted Yoho testified, describing development work. 'If we're not there, China will be there.' The top Republican and Democrat on the panel's East Asia subcommittee framed the assistance issue in terms of strategic competition with China. 'I worry about what's happening in the Pacific Islands … we're ceding our influence there,' said Rep. Ami Bera, D-Calif. 'We're already seeing China step in and take things over.' Rep. Young Kim, R-Calif., like Bera invoked demining work, citing 'reports of CCP officials signaling their willingness to replace USAID in Nepal and demining activities in Cambodia.' 'Even critics of USAID acknowledge the critical soft power value of targeted and efficient programming,' she said. A House Democratic staffer told ABC News that recipient countries, including allies, of U.S. assistance will be left with little choice but to turn to China. The U.S. has engaged in Ghana 'in part' to limit China's gains, the staffer said, calling it 'a really good U.S. partner' that now has a $156 million gap for which to compensate. 'They don't want to work with China more. But when you have a country that has such a liquidity crisis -- they have a new president, and now they have this huge funding gap -- what do you expect them to do?' the staffer asked. All three expert witnesses at Thursday's committee hearing agreed that China represents a counterweight to the U.S. in international development. 'The U.S. has owned the space,' the Democratic staffer said, noting Russia's recent work on mpox and ebola in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, low-visibility assistance that could become more apparent if the U.S. pulls back permanently. Yoho said good programs run by USAID and the State Department should be 'back online as soon as possible' and 'mission-driven' projects should be prioritized. In a letter to Secretary of State Marco Rubio last week, 17 former ambassadors to Vietnam, Cambodia, and Laos called for Rubio 'to end the 90 day stop work order for U.S. foreign assistance programming that suspends U.S.-funded mine clearance programs' via 'a waiver or quick and affirmative review.' The diplomats said in their letter that U.S.-funded demining work advances national security by ensuring bad actors do not weaponize explosive materials and by fostering important connections in defense and economics. MORE: US embassies instructed to prepare for staff reductions: Sources 'As former Ambassadors, we can attest that these programs helped us advance US interests by generating goodwill and providing access to senior government officials,' they wrote. In its statement to ABC News, the State Department said it was standing up a coordination team to ensure the review of foreign assistance was 'accountable' and 'transparen[t].' 'Programs that serve our nation's interests will continue,' the spokesperson said. 'However, programs that aren't aligned with our national interest will not.' The stakes are life-and-death, Morse said. 'What's going to happen is, [there's a] very good chance people are going to die. Next month, they're going to walk into an area that should have been cleared this month.' 'They're going to step on a landmine, blow their leg off and bleed out,' he said. About 81% of cleared land is used for farming, 15% for schools and hospitals and housing, and 4% for energy infrastructure, according to Morse, creating a key second-order effect of development. 'Clearing landmines doesn't simply save lives,' he said. Amid foreign aid pause, lawmakers alarmed China could fill void originally appeared on
South China Morning Post
14-02-2025
- Business
- South China Morning Post
‘People can die': US funding freeze decimates Mekong demining work
Efforts to clear mines and munitions from parts of the Mekong region blanket bombed by American forces during the Vietnam war have been hit by a sudden US funding freeze , with skilled deminers losing jobs and rural populations exposed to increased risks of injury from unexploded ordnance (UXO). On January 25, the State Department suspended funding of nearly all foreign aid commitments for 90 days pending a review by President Donald Trump's 'America first' government. The department, which funnels tens of millions of dollars annually through aid agencies and local groups to carry out demining across the globe – including in the Mekong region – ordered all new spending to be stopped, hitting frontline work almost immediately. The cash crunch has hampered UXO clearance work in places heavily bombed by the United States air force – Laos and Vietnam – as well as neighbouring Cambodia, where instability in the wake of US military intervention triggered decades of conflict. There will be real world outcomes to the funding freeze, warned Bill Morse who founded Cambodian Self Help Demining, a group which has cleared 285 minefields since 2008. 'There's minefields that should be being worked on right now, and they're not,' he told This Week in Asia. 'What can happen? People can die … lives are at risk.'
