Posted on 12/30/2004 5:41:23 PM PST by jb6
PARIS - One-upping the United States, France nearly doubled its aid pledge for tsunami victims to $57 million Thursday and briefly claimed the role as leading donor nation, following barbs from Washington about French generosity.
AP Photo
AFP Slideshow: Asian Tsunami Disaster
But Britain quickly topped France by more than tripling its donation to $95 million and Sweden promised $75.5 million. Spain's Cabinet, meanwhile, approved a $68 million package, although about a fifth was in loans rather than outright grants.
Since Sunday's huge earthquake off Indonesia and ensuing giant waves around the Indian Ocean, the United States has announced an initial $35 million aid package. Secretary of State Colin Powell (news - web sites) said Thursday that was "just a beginning."
Prime Minister Jean-Pierre Raffarin's boast that France vaulted to "the head of all the contributors" appeared to be a response to comments from Andrew Natsios, chief of the U.S. Agency for International Development, which distributes American government aid.
In a Fox News interview this week, Natsios said France tends not to be a world leader in foreign aid and often packages its help as loans, which he suggested are inappropriate in emergencies.
"The aid program in France is not that big," he said. "They do not tend to be dominant figures in the aid. The British are, the European Union (news - web sites) is, the Japanese are, we are, the Canadians are."
At France's Foreign Ministry, spokesman Herve Ladsous shot back that French aid for the tsunami victims "is clearly donations and not loans."
Ladsous also said France gives more development aid than the United States and all other members of the Group of Eight industrial nations when measured as a proportion of a country's economic output.
"The figures speak for themselves," he said.
France allotted .41 percent of its gross national income to development aid in 2003, nearly triple the .15 percent from the United States, according to the Paris-based Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development.
The United States, which has a far bigger economy, led in dollar terms, donating $16.2 billion to France's $7.2 billion, which ranked third among the G-8 nations, OECD figures show. Japan was second.
After Sunday's disaster, in which 22 French citizens are known dead and 560 are missing, France first announced it would donate $30 million — but Raffarin said Thursday it would give an additional $27.2 million for preventing epidemics.
President Jacques Chirac, echoing calls from Germany and Italy, said France would press the Paris Club of creditor nations for a moratorium on debt repayments by countries hit by the disaster. He also called for the creation of a worldwide alert system for earthquakes and tsunami and for a European Union reconstruction fund for the affected areas.
French Foreign Minister Michel Barnier, back from a tour of the destruction in Thailand and Sri Lanka, recommended that nations go beyond the relief and reconstruction coalition formed by the United States, India, Australia and Japan and laid out by President Bush (news - web sites) on Wednesday.
"Of course there needs to be a humanitarian action coalition — as President Bush just proposed," Barnier said. "But there also needs to be another international coalition against poverty, for development."
Hey, if we withhold out dues to the UN we can give over 7 billion dollars this year alone!
Question what the Thais going to do with all those frogs?
Kile Coli Powell said, these idiots in the media are acting like it is an auction.
Let them keep being ridiculous. I double dog dare them.
Considering how all that French B.O. probably caused Global Warming, France should pay for any and all natural disasters....through the nose. ;)
Considering that France started with a pledge of little over $100,000, somehow, doubling that is not really impressive, especially since France is the world's FIFTH largest economy.
How come nobody calls THEM stingy?
December 31??? Are you living in the UK? I know Maldives and Seychelles are popular UK holiday spots.
Froggies can publicly pledge what they want. I don't trust them to ever follow through more than 50%
LOL a bit cynical about the French eh?
Your profile page says December 31... Welcome to FR where we routinely defy the laws of physics :-)
Geeze fricke louise. What is this with the Euro-weenies? Mine is BIGGER than yours? The media should be ashamed of themselves for their part in this too.
When Politicians run amuk with taxpayers' moneys.
Some folks are going to make out like bandits riding this wave of misery.
France will probably ask the U.S. military to deliver their aid with our aircraft!
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