FX.co ★ It is difficult to take care of common business pursuing different interests

At first glance, it may seem to many of us that the West has absolutely negative attitude to the rest of the world, but in fact there are serious deputies inside this alliance itself. The other day, the U.S. Congress blocked an agreement on IMF quotas. The document was planned to be ratified, but before the lawmakers should have approved it. IMF's Head Christine Lagarde criticized the U.S. congressmen. “I am deeply disappointed that necessary steps could not be taken to implement this important governance reform. The world is evolving, and we are fully committed to helping our membership finalize what it agreed in 2010 is needed to ensure that the Fund keeps pace with global change and helps meet emerging challenges. We understand that the U.S. administration will continue to work on securing the necessary legislative authorization, and we are hopeful that this will happen», Lagarde said. The list of necessary measures was approved back in 2010. Since then, it has not won support in the U.S. Congress. America’s contribution quota to the IMF is set to increase by $63 billion. The Obama administration has proposed shifting the money from a special crisis fund to the general IMF loan pool. Republicans argue that the shift would put the money in a fund with less U.S. influence, since general loans are approved by a simple majority of the IMF Executive Board. “I will personally continue to work together with my management colleagues and staff to support completion of the reforms by the membership and hope that the US authorities will give it the high priority that it deserves”, the IMF's managing director commented on the decision. Thus, there is a big question about the Western alliance's solidarity. Mutual disagreements and lack of consensus cause doubts about the common Western front. While another leaders pledge to help, Republicans demand the reforms sought by the IMF be removed from a Ukraine aid package. They argued that IMF reforms should be left out of the bill because they are not directly connected to the aid.