The US State Department has frozen billions of dollars of foreign assistance worldwide, just days after President Donald Trump signed an executive order to significantly reduce the size of the US Agency for International Development (USAID).
USAID, the world's largest aid agency, delivers billions of dollars in international aid annually. However, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio has said that it is "a completely unresponsive agency."
It provides about US$3.4 billion (NZ$6b) to the Pacific, and shutting it down isexpected to have implications for the region, which is one of the most aid-dependent region in world.
Marshall Islands Journal owner and publisher Giff Johnson says President Trump's decision "is an opening for anybody else who wants to fill the gap until Washington decides what it is doing".
