Posted on 03/05/2008 2:32:20 AM PST by Serb29
WASHINGTON, March 4 (Reuters) - The newly independent state of Kosovo will need an estimated $2 billion dollars in foreign aid over the next few years, about half of which should be provided by Europe, a senior U.S. official said on Tuesday.
The rest of the money could come from the United States and such institutions as the World Bank and International Monetary Fund, Assistant Secretary of State Dan Fried said. He was testifying before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.
Helping the fledgling state, which declared independence from Serbia on Feb. 17 with strong backing from Washington, will require top-level attention into the next U.S. administration, Fried said. U.S. President George W. Bush leaves office in January.
"We cannot simply assume that Kosovo is on autopilot and walk away. This is going to take high-level sustained attention through the end of this administration and into the next" said Fried, who is also acting undersecretary of state for political affairs, the State Department's third-ranking position.
Fried stressed the $2 billion was a "crude estimate." To help make Kosovo economically viable, the United States will participate in a major donors' conference on Kosovo in June, he said. He said Congress had already appropriated $350 million in aid for Kosovo.
(Excerpt) Read more at alertnet.org ...
Bill Clinton’s war is looking more and more foolish and destructive by the day. Too bad Bush feels the need to go along with Clinton’s wrong-headed adventure. He certainly doesn’t get the same consideration from Democrats.
And now all of our pro-Jihadist posters have run away!
note to state department: GTH.
Serbia has been paying this so that no one has an exploitable legal reason to "repossess Kosovo".
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