Aurelia Butler

At the beginning of the two-day Ukraine recovery conference in London, Sunak will outline a package which will also include 240 million pounds ($306 million) of bilateral assistance and an expansion of British International Investment in Ukraine.Britain has been one of the main backers of Ukraine since Russia launched its full-scale invasion in February last year, and Sunak hopes the conference will cement London’s standing while encouraging the private sector to do more to help rebuild.”So, together with our allies we will maintain our support for Ukraine’s defence and for the counter offensive, and we’ll stand with Ukraine for as long as it takes as they continue to win this war,” Sunak will tell the conference, according to excerpts of his speech released by his office.”I’m proud that today we’re announcing a multi-year commitment to support Ukraine’s economy, and over the next three years, we will provide loan guarantees worth $3 billion.”Ajay Banga, president of the World Bank Group, said the guarantees would allow it to continue to help “people rebuild their lives after devastation”.The United States is also expected to set out “a new, robust” assistance package for Ukraine on Wednesday.After more than a year of war in Ukraine, Sunak hopes the conference will encourage the private sector to use its resources to help speed Ukraine’s reconstruction, but officials will also have to wrestle with the issue of offering some kind of insurance against war damage and destruction.His office said he would also launch the London Conference Framework for War Risk Insurance at the summit and that some major companies had already signed up to the so-called Ukraine Business Compact, a statement of support for Ukraine’s recovery. Ukraine is seeking up to $40 billion to fund the first part of a “Green Marshall Plan” to rebuild its economy, including developing a coal-free steel industry, a senior Ukrainian official said before the conference.The total bill will be huge, with Ukraine, the World Bank, the European Commission and the United Nations estimating in March that the cost was at $411 billion for the first year of the war. It could easily reach more than $1 trillion.($1 = 0.7851 pounds) More

“We are very encouraged by the significant progress being made in discussions between official creditors and Zambia on a potential debt treatment,” a spokesperson for the fund wrote.”We expect an agreement could be reached within a few days, which would allow the Executive Board consider the first review of the Fund-supported program within a few weeks.”The IMF said in early April that the next $188 million payout from a $1.3 billion support loan to Zambia was contingent on the government’s reaching an agreement with its creditors.Zambia’s hopes of restructuring about $12.8 billion of external debt have been hampered by the concerns of its main creditors about the required scale of relief. More

Speaking at a press conference in London after wrapping up a trip this week to Beijing, Blinken said he made clear to his Chinese counterparts “that we would have deep concerns about PRC intelligence or military activities in Cuba”. Blinken added: “This is something we’re going to be monitoring very, very closely and we’ve been very clear about that. And we will protect our homeland, we will protect our interests.” The Wall Street Journal, citing current and former U.S. officials, reported on Tuesday that China and Cuba are negotiating to establish a joint military training facility on the island that could lead to the stationing of Chinese troops just 100 miles off Florida’s coast. Discussions for the facility are at an advanced stage but have not concluded, and President Joe Biden’s administration has contacted Cuban officials to try to stop the deal, the newspaper reported. The White House National Security Council and the Cuban government did not immediately respond to requests for comment on the report. Washington said last week it has made its concerns known to Cuba about hosting Chinese spy operations. The U.S. government has long suspected that China runs an intelligence gathering operation in a village near Havana, on Cuba’s northern coast. China denies it uses Cuba as a spy base. Cuba says the only military incursion in its territory is the Guantanamo Bay Naval Base, which belongs to the United States. More

PARIS (Reuters) – Leaders meeting this week at a summit in Paris are set to back a push for multilateral development banks like the World Bank to put more capital at risk to boost lending, according to a draft summit statement seen by Reuters.Multilateral development banks are expected to be at the centre of talks on Thursday and Friday in the French capital when nearly 40 heads of state and government meet to nail down a roadmap for easing the debt burdens on low-income countries and making more funds available for climate financing.An expert panel review for G20 nations last year found that multilateral lenders’ management, government shareholders and their credit rating agencies were too timid about their financial risks.The panel suggested a greater risk tolerance could free up several hundreds of billions dollars over the medium term.A summit statement on multilateral development banks, which as a draft is subject to change, calls for a new push to be made “to optimise the use of capital by MDBs and encourage them to pursue innovative measures”.”This should include exploring incorporating a prudent share of callable capital into MDB capital adequacy frameworks (and) diversifying their sources of funding (including by exploring issuance of hybrid capital),” the summit statement said.Callable capital is the funds government shareholders would be expected to stump up if ever a major development bank suffered big losses depleting paid-in capital, which has so far never happened. Hybrid capital is financial instruments that development banks could issue to investors to raise additional funds.The statement said that capital hikes for some unspecified development banks could be considered, but left it up to the board of each one to determine if and when one was needed.The leaders are also set to support plans for rich countries to re-channel some of their unused special drawing rights at the International Monetary Fund – a global reserve currency – to development banks, including the African Development Bank and the Inter-American Development Bank. More

Good morning. US secretary of state Antony Blinken raised concerns with China about its alleged electronic spying facilities in Cuba during a two-day mission to Beijing aimed at stabilising relations between the two countries. Before departing Beijing, Blinken told CBS television that he had discussed the subject of Chinese spying operations in Cuba in his meetings with top officials.Asked if he had brought up the issue, he said: “I did. I’m not going to characterise their response, but I told them that this is a serious concern for us.”The Wall Street Journal recently reported that Beijing and Havana had reached a tentative deal for a new electronic eavesdropping facility in Cuba, roughly 350km from Florida. The Biden administration initially disputed the report but later disclosed that China had been conducting electronic espionage from Cuba since at least 2019.National Security Council spokesperson John Kirby said it was “no secret” China had been trying to improve its intelligence gathering capabilities in the western hemisphere, including a “relationship that they have had for quite some time with Cuba”.The US has become increasingly concerned about Chinese espionage as China has expanded its operations overseas. Earlier this year, US-China relations deteriorated after a suspected Chinese spy balloon flew over North America for roughly a week. Will espionage concerns hinder efforts to stabilise Sino-US relations? Email your thoughts to [email protected]’s what else I’m keeping tabs on:Missing Titanic submersible: Search and rescue crews are racing to locate the tourist submersible that went missing on a dive to the site of the Titanic, as fears grow for five people aboard with dwindling oxygen. Ukraine Recovery Conference: Politicians and businesspeople gather in London for a two-day conference to discuss Ukraine’s postwar recovery. Here’s the FT View on how to support the reconstruction effort. Economic data: The UK and South Africa release inflation figures for last month. Five more top stories1. Hunter Biden has agreed to plead guilty to criminal tax violations and reached a deal with prosecutors over a separate firearm offence. Donald Trump and his Republican allies have responded to the news by claiming prosecutors were too lenient in the case involving the US president’s son.2. The People’s Bank of China has cut its benchmark lending rate for the first time in almost a year. The one-year loan prime rate was reduced by 10 basis points to 3.55 per cent to spur more robust growth in the struggling economy. Read about China’s latest effort to boost growth.3. Alibaba is replacing Daniel Zhang as chief executive and chair of the Chinese ecommerce giant, with a top lieutenant to its former boss Jack Ma set to take the reins. Here are more details on the management shake-up, which raises the possibility of Ma’s deeper involvement again in running Alibaba. 4. Pirelli has announced a new succession plan following the resignation of Marco Tronchetti Provera’s handpicked replacement as chief executive. The decision comes days after Rome announced measures to curb the influence of Chinese investor Sinochem over the Italian tyremaker, invoking national security concerns. Read the full story.5. Two former Wirecard executives were sentenced to prison in Singapore, the first criminal convictions related to the collapse of the once high-flying German payments group. Singapore’s state court sentenced James Wardhana to 21 months and Chai Ai Lim to 10 months for conspiring to misappropriate funds.The Big Read

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In January, scientists from the UN atomic watchdog visited Iran’s secretive Fordow nuclear facility and made a shocking discovery: uranium there had been enriched to record levels of purity, suggesting Tehran was closer than ever to having the capacity to produce nuclear weapons. Western diplomats have quietly resumed talks, but some think it may be too late to halt the Islamic republic’s march to nuclear statehood.We’re also reading . . . Military briefing: Russia’s Ka-52 “Alligator” attack helicopters are threatening a budding Ukrainian counteroffensive short on air defences.Janan Ganesh: To rationalise western populism is a fool’s errand and yet it is one undertaken by people of the highest intelligence.Refugee policy: Last week’s catastrophe off the Greek coast brought home the need to design more effective migrant management systems, writes David Miliband. Chart of the dayOver the past 270 years, Europe and North America have contributed more than 70 per cent of the stock of human-made greenhouse gases. But today emerging and developing countries generate some 63 per cent of emissions, a share that is bound to grow. The investments needed for a green transition in these countries (other than China) needs to reach some $2.4tn a year by 2030, writes Martin Wolf. Take a break from the news

Pharrell Williams sits next to Pietro Beccari during the Louis Vuitton Womenswear Fall-Winter 2023 fashion show in March © Kristy Sparow/Getty

The FT spoke to music star Pharrell Williams ahead of his Louis Vuitton debut at Paris Fashion Week. “This is not a job. This is not a gig. This is a dream,” Williams said about his unexpected appointment as creative director of menswear at the biggest luxury brand in the world. Additional contributions by Tee Zhuo and Gordon Smith More