“We are not the government of the world,” Marco Rubio told a BBC journalist at NATO headquarters in Brussels on April 4.
The American Secretary of State defended a modest contribution of $ 2 million for Myanmar, recovering from an earthquake of amplitude of 7.7 which killed more than 3,500 people. The State Department then softened its position on humanitarian assistance and promised an additional $ 7 million for areas affected by the earthquake.
In recent years, the United States has been one of the main donors to help Myanmar, working with non-governmental organizations to provide food, water and an emergency shelter to conflict or disaster areas. In 2024, the USAID (the United States agency for international development) contributed $ 141 million to humanitarian causes, of which $ 3 million went to the communities struck by the floods in the aftermath of Typhoon Yagi.
The dismantling of the USAID by the Trump administration in January, however, marked the end of an era of large -scale expenses for foreign aid.
In his remarks to the press, Rubio said that the United States “would make our part” for victims of earthquakes, but that other countries “should participate”. The Secretary of State said that non -urgent food, health or education projects managed by international organizations “flooded with American taxpayers” would be eliminated. “We are not going to finance these world NGOs,” he said.
Rubio suggested that the State Department was open to supporting local NGOs “appropriate”, but stressed that the Myanmar was “not the easiest place to work” because the government was led by a “military junta who does not like us … does not allow us to operate”.
An international team sent by the State Department, however, found that Washington, DC (and not Naycyidaw) had disconnected rescue efforts. Current and former USAID officials confirmed that three staff members had received job dismissal emails a few days after their arrival in the city of Mandalay “The Robble Trewn”. A rescue worker had made a Washington unvain; The other staff members were based in Bangkok and Manila.
The convoluted relationship of Myanmar with foreign aid preceded the earthquake.
USAID has spent important amounts on displaced refugees from the border states of Myanmar. Aid beneficiaries were distributed in several countries. Bangladesh has received nearly $ 2 billion since August 2017 for the resettlement of Rohingyas refugees fleeing violence in Rakhine. In Thailand, 15% of the USAID budget in 2023 was reserved for nutritional assistance to the Burmese community. Students of the state of Chin subject to conflicts and (Karenni) of the state of Kayah received scholarships to continue higher education in the universities of the Philippines, Indonesia and Cambodia.
USAID scholarships inadvertently became a lightning rod in American cultural wars.
President Donald Trump criticized the program several times. During a bill of the bill in January, Trump said that his administration “had blocked $ 45 million for diversity scholarships in Burma. Forty-five years. It is a lot of money for diversity scholarships in Burma.”
In a speech to a joint session of the US Congress on March 4, the president cited the scholarship program as an example of “appalling waste”.
The program of diversity and inclusion scholarships (DISP), awarded in 2023, was set up to offer higher education opportunities to “ethnic and religious minorities, women, LGBTQI +, people with disabilities and displaced people”.
David Thang Moe, Lecturer in South-East Asia Studies at the University of Yale, said today to the Evangelical Publication Christianity that the DISP scholarships “filled a void in the educational space of the Myanmar”, helping minority students to “acquire a critical perspective”.
Although the word “diversity” in DISP was then replaced by “Development”, a national government official of the Myanmar national unit declared to Radio Free Asia that the stock market had become a high -level target “because of its name”. About 400 students enrolled in study programs lost their funding when the Government Ministry of Effectiveness canceled the scholarships on January 29.
“I must say that it is quite a blow,” admitted a DISP scholar in Thailand. “Uncertainty for current students is the place where they will get their tuition fees for the next half,” said Hlwan Basic Thiha, a student working towards a master’s degree in public policy.
The Payap University of Chiang Mai would consider an exemption from tuition fees for DISP recipients. The Private University welcomes nine students from the State of Myanmar and offers a doctorate. Peace consolidation program.