The administration of US President Barack Obama said it was near an agreement with other nations to cancel the US$447 million that Haiti owes to the Inter-American Development Bank (IADB).
US Treasury Department officials said on Thursday that a deal would likely be struck this weekend to cancel Haiti’s debt to the bank, which serves as a major source of development loans for Latin America and the Caribbean.
Two senior Treasury officials briefed reporters in advance of the annual meetings of the bank, which was to begin yesterday in Cancun, Mexico. They spoke on condition of anonymity because the meetings had yet to occur.
Following the devastating earthquake that struck Haiti in January, US Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner said the administration would seek an agreement for the cancellation of all debts owed by Haiti to international lending institutions including the IADB, the IMF and the World Bank.
Geithner won support for that drive at meetings of finance officials of the G7 major industrial countries last month in Canada.
One of the Treasury officials who briefed reporters on Thursday said that the administration was working for an agreement at the IADB meetings that would not only cancel Haiti’s IADB debt, but would also lead to Haiti receiving grants from the bank that would not have to be repaid.
The Cancun conference will be attended by representatives from Latin American and Caribbean nations as well as the US and China, two major donor countries to the Washington-based lending institution.
The US Treasury Department will be represented at the meetings by Marisa Lago, Treasury’s assistant secretary for international markets and development.
In addition to discussing debt relief for Haiti, the Cancun meetings are expected to lead to an agreement on boosting the IADB’s capital reserves, which stand now at about US$100 billion.
An advisory panel last year recommended that the IADB’s reserves be increased by up to US$178 billion to sustain annual lending of US$18 billion, but the Treasury officials would not provide a specific figure that the US was supporting.
One Treasury official said that the administration would support a “substantial” increase that would provide the resources so that the bank would be able to double the amount in loans made before the financial crisis hit in 2008.
The bank loaned an average of about US$6 billion a year before the economic meltdown and spiked to a level of US$15 billion in loan commitments last year in response to the financial crisis.
“There is a clear case for an increase that would allow the bank to effectively double its loan volume in relation to the pre-crisis loan levels,” the Treasury official said.
CONFRONTATION: The water cannon attack was the second this month on the Philippine supply boat ‘Unaizah May 4,’ after an incident on March 5 The China Coast Guard yesterday morning blocked a Philippine supply vessel and damaged it with water cannons near a reef off the Southeast Asian country, the Philippines said. The Philippine military released video of what it said was a nearly hour-long attack off the Second Thomas Shoal (Renai Shoal, 仁愛暗沙) in the contested South China Sea, where Chinese ships have unleashed water cannons and collided with Philippine vessels in similar standoffs in the past few months. The China Coast Guard and other vessels “once again harassed, blocked, deployed water cannons, and executed dangerous maneuvers” against a routine rotation and resupply mission to
GLOBAL COMBAT AIR PROGRAM: The potential purchasers would be limited to the 15 nations with which Tokyo has signed defense partnership and equipment transfer deals Japan’s Cabinet yesterday approved a plan to sell future next-generation fighter jets that it is developing with the UK and Italy to other nations, in the latest move away from the country’s post-World War II pacifist principles. The contentious decision to allow international arms sales is expected to help secure Japan’s role in the joint fighter jet project, and is part of a move to build up the Japanese arms industry and bolster its role in global security. The Cabinet also endorsed a revision to Japan’s arms equipment and technology transfer guidelines to allow coproduced lethal weapons to be sold to nations
‘POLITICAL EARTHQUAKE’: Leo Varadkar said he was ‘no longer the best person’ to lead the nation and was stepping down for political, as well as personal, reasons Leo Varadkar on Wednesday announced that he was stepping down as Ireland’s prime minister and leader of the Fine Gael party in the governing coalition, citing “personal and political” reasons. Pundits called the surprise move, just 10 weeks before Ireland holds European Parliament and local elections, a “political earthquake.” A general election has to be held within a year. Irish Deputy Prime Minister Micheal Martin, leader of Fianna Fail, the main coalition partner, said Varadkar’s announcement was “unexpected,” but added that he expected the government to run its full term. An emotional Varadkar, who is in his second stint as prime minister and at
Thousands of devotees, some in a state of trance, gathered at a Buddhist temple on the outskirts of Bangkok renowned for sacred tattoos known as Sak Yant, paying their respects to a revered monk who mastered the practice and seeking purification. The gathering at Wat Bang Phra Buddhist temple is part of a Thai Wai Khru ritual in which devotees pay homage to Luang Phor Pern, the temple’s formal abbot, who died in 2002. He had a reputation for refining and popularizing the temple’s Sak Yant tattoo style. The idea that tattoos confer magical powers has existed in many parts of Asia