United States Secretary of State Antony Blinken says President Lazarus Chakwera has shown courage by taking “painful corrective economic decisions” that will help Malawi in the long term.
According to State House Malawi, Blinken said this yesterday during bilateral talks with Chakwera at the US State Department ahead of the signing of the $US350 million Millennium Challenge Compact.
“Secretary Blinken commended President Chakwera for his leadership as demonstrated through his courage to make difficult and painful corrective economic decisions that will yield dividends for the country in the long term, as well as for his defence of freedom and democracy on the international stage.
“He therefore assured the President of America’s support in Malawi’s quest to implement the developmental pillars of Malawi 2063 towards the achievement of job creation, wealth creation, and food security,” State House said on its Facebook page.
During the meeting, Chakwera and Secretary Blinken discussed a number of areas of mutual cooperation between Malawi and the United States, including infrastructural development, promotion of democracy, governance reform, and economic recovery.
Blinken’s remarks come as the Chakwera administration is struggling to resolve fuel and forex shortage as well as electricity blackouts in Malawi. Since Chakwera came into power in 2020, there has also been a sharp rise in prices of various goods and services which has mostly affected low income earners.
Critics say Chakwera has failed to deal with corruption, reduce borrowing and control government spending. There have also been calls for Chakwera to reduce local and external travel and cut fuel allocations to his ministers in order to save public resources.
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