World Bank is not an American bank, German development minister says

By Maria Martinez

WASHINGTON (Reuters) -The Trump administration cannot determine the mission of the World Bank because the global lender's goals are based on agreement by many countries, Svenja Schulze, Germany's minister for economic cooperation and development, told Reuters.

"This is not an American bank, it's a world bank," Schulze said in an interview on Thursday on the sidelines of the International Monetary Fund and World Bank spring meetings in Washington.

U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent on Wednesday called on the IMF and World Bank to refocus on their core missions of macroeconomic stability and development, arguing they have strayed too far into vanity projects such as climate change.

Certain euphemisms are starting to be used in international institutions, such as "weather developments" instead of "climate change," and words like "gender" or "climate" or "inclusion" are being avoided.

"That is the founding mission of this bank, to take care of exactly these issues, and therefore we will now have to talk about what the U.S. actually wants," Schulze said.

The U.S. is the largest single shareholder of the World Bank, with just under 16%.

President Donald Trump's administration has cancelled billions of dollars in foreign aid, including funding for projects that provide lifesaving care for millions of people in some of the world's poorest countries.

Schulze noted that these cuts have caused "a very large loss of trust" in developing countries, adding that rebuilding trust and showing that the World Bank and Germany are reliable partners were her goals for this week's meetings.

Schulze's Social Democrats will retain control of the German development ministry as part of the coalition agreement reached by the parties forming Germany's next government. It is not clear who the next minister will be, though Schulze said she would like to remain in the position.

"We want to continue investing in development," she said. "Investment in development policy is also part of our security policy. It's not just foreign policy and defence, but also development."

Germany provided 30 billion euros ($34.16 billion), or 0.67% of its gross national income, for development aid in 2024, but failed to meet the agreed United Nations target of 0.7% of GDP, the Official Development Assistance (ODA) quota.

The agreement reached by the incoming German coalition includes an "appropriate reduction in the ODA quota," which comes after years in which the budget was constantly reduced, according to the agreement.

($1 = 0.8781 euros)

(Reporting by Maria Martinez; Editing by Paul Simao)