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Three Democratic senators are demanding that Secretary of State Marco Rubio reject what they characterized as a scheme to withhold lifesaving HIV treatment from over a million Zambians unless the African nation agrees to grant US businesses favorable access to its copper mines.
Jeanne Shaheen, the top Democrat on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, along with Sens. Chris Coons, D-Del., and Brian Schatz, D-Hawaii, wrote in a letter to Rubio that they are “alarmed by reports” about State Department officials proposing to condition both HIV funding and previously pledged Millennium Challenge Corporation economic assistance on Zambia agreeing to favorable economic reforms for US businesses.
“We urge you to reject this tactic of economic coercion,” they wrote in the Thursday letter, which was shared first with Semafor.
It follows reporting from The New York Times that State had crafted a plan to pressure Lusaka on mining policy by threatening to end health support “on a massive scale.” The senators called the reported approach “a disturbing break from the long held bipartisan support for PEPFAR,” a program that has enjoyed rare bipartisan backing in Congress.
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A Senate Democratic aide told Semafor that State Department officials have informed them “that Secretary Rubio believes every dollar spent should be in the interest of the United States, with the implication that life-saving aid is dependent on economic deals.”
The State Department pushed back on that characterization, framing the approach as part of a broader shift in US foreign policy strategy.
“[The US is transitioning] from a foreign assistance paradigm to an investment and growth paradigm capable of harnessing Africa’s abundant natural resources and latent economic potential,” a spokesperson told Semafor.
On health aid, the department added that it has “offered Zambia a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) under the America First Global Health Strategy” and expects recipient governments to increase their own health spending.
Zambia holds some of the world’s most significant copper reserves, a resource of growing strategic importance as the US and China compete for influence over the critical minerals needed to power electric vehicles and defense technologies.
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A new proposed railway to connect Zambia’s copper mines with the Lobito port in Angola will cost up to $5 billion, Semafor recently reported.