The Trump administration is holding out against a capital increase for the World Bank until it overhauls its lending to China and other middle income countries, creating a new source of tension between Washington and Beijing.
Jim Yong Kim, the World Bank’s president, has been pushing for extra financial resources and had hoped that shareholders would agree on at least a timetable for the increase at this week’s annual meetings in Washington.
The dispute is another sign of President Donald Trump’s antipathy for the international system and what his critics regard as a US withdrawal from global leadership. The US on Thursday said it was pulling out of Unesco, the UN cultural body. It has also taken a more combative attitude towards the UN more broadly and other international bodies such as Nato and the World Trade Organisation.
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