That's No Way to Treat Visitors

New York Times: "Two weeks before world leaders are due in New York to talk about global poverty and United Nations reform, the United States is trying to renege on commitments to fight poverty. If this wasn't so gut-wrenchingly important to the one billion people in Africa, Latin America and Asia who subsist on barely anything, the United States' proposal, presented last week by America's new United Nations ambassador, John Bolton, would be almost funny.

On Sept. 14, the leaders of more than 170 countries are to show up to sign an agreement, under negotiation for six months, to bolster the United Nations Millennium Declaration, which was drafted with great fanfare in 2000. Chief among the Millennium Declaration's goals was for developed countries, like the United States, Britain and France, to work toward giving 0.7 percent of their national incomes for development aid to poor countries by 2015.

Alas, if the American proposal is to be taken seriously, President Bush has had a change of heart. The draft document that Mr. Bolton shared with other diplomats calls for striking almost all mentions of the Millennium Development Goals, which also call for poor countries to adopt good governance.

American officials at the United Nations also complain that the section on poverty is too long. And the United States wants to erase parts of the text that would ask countries to "achieve the target of 0.7 percent of gross national product for official development assistance by no later than 2015."

Not all of the American proposals are so wrong-headed. Mr. Bolton is right in calling for radical reform of the United Nations' bureaucracy. He is also correct in urging the substitution of the Human Rights Commission with a more powerful Human Rights Council that wouldn't make a mockery of the name by having countries like Sudan and Libya as members. And few would argue with his call to strengthen antiterrorism efforts around the world.

But in international negotiations, you have to give a little to get a little, and right now, America isn't doing a whole lot of giving. It would be truly unfortunate if more than 170 world leaders show up in New York for a summit meeting on poverty in two weeks only to get the door slammed in their faces by their apparently indifferent host."