US national security adviser details White House's development goals

Dealing with the most pressing humanitarian crises, from Ukraine to Sudan to Gaza. Adapting to a rapidly changing world, with artificial intelligence at the forefront. And unlocking more resources for the United States to partner with other countries — and as a result, driving further advances in development, infrastructure, clean energy, and technology across the world. Those are three of the priorities that Jake Sullivan, the national security adviser of the United States, said are occupying most of his time, speaking to nearly 400 people at an event in Washington, D.C. on Monday. “This is going to be the way in which we actually deal with both our development and security needs going forward — and those investments today will pay off one-hundredfold tomorrow,” said Sullivan, who opened a day-long forum hosted by the U.S. Global Leadership Coalition, an organization focused on strengthening American foreign policy. The national security adviser spoke about development’s role in national security — especially in a world ravaged by conflict, crisis, and disaster. That includes not just responding to the world’s most urgent humanitarian crises — Sullivan mentioned the ongoing cease-fire negotiations between Israel and Hamas, but noted that the parties hadn’t come to an agreement yet — but dealing with the development challenges many others face. “This really is, as you know, one of the core tensions at the heart of American foreign policy: putting out the immediate fires while also trying to build more resilience so there are fewer fires in the future,” said Sullivan. “We simply, again, do not have the resources or the assets necessary to get after the scope of the problems we are facing.” Sullivan stressed how the Biden administration is trying to ramp up “the architecture of global development” — the international financial institutions and multilateral development banks — so they can better address the root causes of such development challenges, including the debt burden faced by countries across the world. “The single thing that is most holding back developing countries right now from being able to address the challenges, and ensure that the next humanitarian crisis isn’t right around the corner, is getting out from crushing debt,” Sullivan said. “The president has made clear that we need an all-hands-on-deck strategy to deal with that.” Sullivan cited the Nairobi-Washington Vision, a strategy launched by U.S. President Joe Biden and Kenyan President William Ruto during the latter’s visit to the American capital last week. Through the initiative, the United States will provide some $250 million to a World Bank crisis response fund — and later contribute another $21 billion in Special Drawing Rights, a special reserve currency issued by the International Monetary Fund, in a trust for the world’s poorest countries. “If we can solve the problem for debt relief, then we can set the stage for more sustainable development as we go forward,” he added. With elections for half the world’s population happening this year, there’s a lot that might change — especially as the United States inches closer to its own November presidential election. Sullivan was asked how a second Biden administration would handle the development, diplomacy, and other foreign affairs challenges of today, and, if Biden were to win, what Sullivan would like the U.S. to focus on going forward. “One thing I would like to see — and it goes back to where I don’t think we’ve gone as far as we could go — is a major initiative with the Congress aimed at truly delivering on the promise of unlocking resources for the developing world,” Sullivan said. That includes not just resourcing debt relief, he explained, but investing in the so-called corridors the United States has been working to lay down across the world — an ongoing example of which is the railway connecting the southern Democratic Republic of the Congo and northwestern Zambia to Angola’s Port of Lobito. A similar project, which was announced two months ago, will be the first in the Indo-Pacific region. And if the war between Gaza and Israel subsides, Sullivan said he hopes another — which would link India to the Middle East to Europe — would follow in its tracks. “We’re trying to identify places in the world where we can put together infrastructure, agriculture, energy, digital technology,” Sullivan said. “That requires a coherent set of resources that has a different and more dynamic theory of how you generate development, economic growth, and stability. And I think the sky’s the limit on it.”