HAVANA, February 7. /TASS/. The United States will continue to provide assistance to foreign countries despite the liquidation of the US Agency for International Development (USAID), Secretary of State Marco Rubio said at a press conference.

"We are going to do foreign aid. The United States will be providing foreign aid, but it is going to be foreign aid that makes sense and is aligned with our national interests," the top US diplomat said.

Commenting on the decision to suspend USAID, Rubio pointed out that the administration of US President Donald Trump sought to "identify programs that work and continue them, and to identify programs that are not aligned with our national interest and identify those and address them." He explained that a number of international support programs would not fall under the USAID suspension order. The top US diplomat added that the administration was "working through the process of identifying them."

On February 3, the US administration effectively suspended the activities of USAID. By decision of US President Donald Trump, Secretary of State Marco Rubio was appointed as the temporary head of this agency. USAID was suspended at the suggestion of billionaire US businessman Elon Musk, whom Trump had previously appointed to head the new Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) to improve the US government, reduce the bloated state apparatus and fight bureaucracy.

The Republican Trump administration's actions regarding USAID, which has been one of the tools of Washington's foreign policy and US influence in other countries, have already caused a storm of protest among members of the Democratic Party. USAID is formally an independent agency, but in reality it works within the structure of the US State Department.