ERBIL, Kurdistan Region — As the US president proposed $18 billion in foreign aid cuts, the US permanent Ambassador to the United Nations visited Turkey and Jordan to see the humanitarian challenges both countries face and to hear possible solutions for the humanitarian situation in war-torn Syria.
"We thanked him for Turkey's support of 3 million Syrian refugees and discussed our continued support of their efforts as we work together towards a solution in Syria," UN Ambassador Nicki Haley wrote in a tweet after meeting with Turkish Prime Minister Binali Yildirm.
The two met in a closed meeting that lasted about an hour, according to Turkish media.
Earlier on Tuesday, Haley visited a UNICEF treatment facility that was providing emotional support to refugee children from Syria.
“Today we visited a health center that trains Syrian doctors and nurses to practice medicine in Turkey, helping their fellow refugees. This innovative Turkish/UN partnership also provides healthcare and counseling services for Syrians who have escaped conflict zones,” Haley wrote on Twitter.
Her first official overseas trip to Jordan and Turkey comes as US President Donald Trump revealed his 2018 budget that proposes $18 billion in further cuts to State Department and USAID. Amman says it hosts 1.3 million Syrian refugees, while Ankara reports 3 million from Syria and Iraq.
"It's starting the conversation," The Associated Press reported Haley as saying. "It doesn't mean that's where it will end up. He's going to have that conversation with Congress on where we should fall on this."
Many members of congress were critical of Trump’s overseas platitudes and increased defense spending amid the slashes in overseas aid spending.
"He's going around now from country to country on the world stage, but he doesn't want us to put our money where our mouth is," Rep. Eliot Engel, the House Foreign Affairs Committee's top Democrat, told The Associated Press. "It's just so totally destructive."
