Bush Not Supportive of Blair's Action Plan for Africa

Ahead of the meeting with British Prime Minister Tony Blair next Monday, U.S. President George Bush expressed his disagreement over the aid plan laid out by Blair. The plan requires rich countries to give US$25 billion in aid a year and 100% cancellation of debt of countries in sub-Saharan Africa.

Blair has placed aid to Africa and climate change at the top of the list of priorities that will be discussed during the G8 meeting next month in Scotland.

George Bush, however, is not supportive of Blair's aid plan for Africa that would require a doubling of American aid. During the press conference at the meeting with South African president Thabo Mbeki where apart from other topics, increasing aid to Africa was discussed, Bush made clear in a statement that he will oppose the British plans to create an International Financing Facility (IFF).

"We have made our position pretty clear on that, that it doesn't fit our budgetary process," said President Bush. According to Bush, the general drift of G8 politics concerning African aid was already satisfactory, and so accordingly a drastic change of the current policy was not necessary.

Both countries agreed on relief of Africa's World Bank Debts; however, there are differences on how the finances should be provided.

Blair and his finance minister Gordon Brown propose that the rich countries should pay the debt as one of the solutions. Another solution mentioned has been to sell some of the International Monetary Fund's gold reserves.

Bush' administration has opposed both scenarios, and suggests that the debt should be paid from direct aid budgets, which would result in African countries not receiving any additional funds.

Ahead of the G8 summit, leaders of the European Union have already agreed to provide 0.7% GDP for foreign aid by 2015, so that the targets of the UN may be met.

However, the U.S. has rejected such a target claiming that it already spends more money on foreign aid than any other country - US$7.5 billion a year - which works out as 0.16% of the US GDP.

"We've tripled assistance to Africa since 2001," White House spokesman Scott McClellan said. "The United States has been leading the way when it comes to aid and development assistance to Africa."

Another aspect that is being considered by the U.S. is the level of corruption in Africa. Bush believes that increasing aid for Africa without political reform and fighting against corruption would not be helpful.

A meeting between Blair and Bush has been scheduled for next Monday in Washington. It will be the second meeting that Blair has undertaken with world leaders in the build-up to the G8 summit. Recently he met Premier Berlusconi in Rome and gained the support of Italy for his Africa aid plan.

Aid experts indicate that there may be room for negotiation during the meeting. However, the differences between Bush and Blair's views on the possible solutions for the Africa crisis are clear and apparant to all.

John Williamson, an aid expert at the Institute for International Economics said: "It was a wild hope that the Bush people would get enthusiastic about that. In a sense, Europe is a more hopeful route."