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The State Department on Tuesday notified Congress that it will
reprogram $52 million in foreign military financing from
Slovakia, North Macedonia, Tunisia and Iraq to Panama, Peru,
Ecuador and Colombia.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio visited Colombia, Ecuador and
Peru last week and pledged to them additional support as the
Trump administration has prioritized the Western Hemisphere in
its foreign policy with an emphasis on combating drug
trafficking and illegal immigration.
It is just the latest in a series of moves that have reduced
either money or troop deployments to Europe in response to
President Donald Trump's complaints about NATO allies not
spending enough on their defense budgets and other matters. Both
North Macedonia and Slovakia are NATO members.
But it also comes as the administration has put particular
attention on the Western Hemisphere, aligning deeply with
right-wing governments as Trump celebrates a renewal of the 19th
century Monroe Doctrine establishing Washington's dominance in
the Americas.
Foreign military financing provides recipient countries with
U.S. taxpayer dollars to allow them to purchase military
equipment from American defense contractors.
The State Department said the funds would be used to “combat
narcoterrorism in our backyard and help continue to secure the
Panama Canal,” adding that the Western Hemisphere has been
historically neglected in U.S. military assistance.
“These funds will prevent adversaries from establishing
strategic footholds in our hemisphere,” the department said in a
veiled jab at China, which has increasingly sought to boost its
presence in Latin America.
The shift of money does not eliminate foreign military financing
for Tunisia, Iraq, North Macedonia or Slovakia, although the
exact amount remaining for those countries was not immediately
clear.
The State Department said, though, that the current distribution
of financing does “not align with the administration’s
prioritization of” the Western Hemisphere.
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