Numerous heads of state from the third world are in Paris for a summit hosted by President Macron. The aim of the conference – or the Summit for a New Global Financing Pact to give it its full lofty name – is to ‘address the needs of developing countries in the fight against poverty.’
Is France, or indeed the rest of the West, in a position to dish out advice to developing nations?
The days of Europe being able to lecture developing countries about efficiency, integrity and prosperity are long gone.
It was bleakly ironic that on the eve of the summit Paris was rocked by a huge gas explosion that blew apart a building in the fifth arrondissement, injuring dozens of residents. It’s the second such incident in recent years. In 2019 four Parisians were killed when a gas leak detonated inside their building, prompting warnings from local politicians and fire service chiefs that the decrepit state of the 2,000km of gas piping was ‘the number one problem in Paris’.
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