NEW YORK — The State Department on Thursday announced it will refocus its foreign health assistance strategy around multiyear bilateral deals with recipient countries, making aid dependent on negotiations that officials say will help reduce waste and advance American priorities.
“We must keep what is good about our health foreign assistance programs while rapidly fixing what is broken,” Secretary of State Marco Rubio said in a letter about the new strategy. “We will continue to be the world’s health leader and the most generous nation in the world, but we will do so in a way that directly benefits the American people and directly promotes our national interest.”
The new approach aligns with President Donald Trump’s pattern of dealing with other nations transactionally, using direct talks with foreign governments to promote his agenda abroad. It builds on his sharp turn from traditional U.S. foreign assistance, which supporters say helped U.S. interests by stabilizing other countries and economies and building alliances.
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