French President Emanuel Macron took a swipe at US President Donald Trump on Thursday evening, warmly acknowledging Lesotho’s King Letsie III’s presence at the Nutrition for Growth summit in Paris and emphasising that France was well aware of the nation he rules.
“We are happy to have you here, and we are fairly sure your country does exist, and it is a good thing to send (it) funds that are properly used,” Macron said via a translator.
Trump set off a diplomatic storm earlier this month when he defended his administration’s sweeping cuts to foreign aid by saying Lesotho was a “country nobody has ever heard of”. He drew laughter from the US congress with his depiction of Lesotho which he said had received $8m from the US to promote LGBTQI+ rights.
At the time Lesotho’s foreign minister Lejone Mpotjoane said he was shocked and insulted by Trump’s remarks, and invited him to come and visit the mountainous kingdom, which is home to 2-million people.
Letsie, who is the AU champion on nutrition, was given a prominent role at the summit and gave an address at the opening plenary session. He drew attention to the harm caused by childhood malnutrition, saying: “(It) destroys health, damages cognitive development, limits opportunities and hampers economic growth. It’s impacts are far-reaching... touching every aspect of life,” he said.
The damage caused by stunting, low birth weight babies, anaemia and suboptimal breast feeding cost Africa least $153bn a year in lost productivity, he said.
Letsie made the case for increasing spending nutrition even as donor countries cut back on aid, saying it was the “number one investment a donor can make to ensure sustainable growth”.
According to the World Bank, every $1 invested in nutrition yields an average of $23 in economic benefits.
The summit, which aims to mobilise resources to improve global nutrition, has drawn high level representatives from governments, philanthropic foundations, the private sector, researchers and civil society. It was held for the first time in London in 2013, and has taken place every four years since then the city that has most recently hosted the summer Olympics. The next summit is due to be held in Los Angeles, which will host the Olympics July 2028.
Macron said France was committed to investing in interventions aimed at improving nutrition despite the global squeeze on foreign aid. He announced that France is to invest €750m in such programmes over the next five years, of which €100m will be directed to Africa via the Agence Française de Développement, a public international finance institution.
In addition to the abrupt aid cuts announced in recent weeks by the US, many key donor countries in Europe, including France, the UK and Holland have recently announced plans to scale back on their budgets for foreign assistance over the next few years.
• Kahn attended the summit as a guest of the French government.
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