Impact of the Gulf War on Latin America and the Caribbean and the development challenges.

On May 26, the IPAG team, led by its Chairman, Prof. Syed Munir Khasru, met the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB), represented by Cecilia Nahón, Principal Specialist and former Argentinian G20 Sherpa, and Bar Ben Yakov, Senior Specialist, External Affairs at the IDB head office in Washington, D.C.

The meeting focused on how the Middle-East conflict is affecting Latin America and the Caribbean through energy prices, food and fertilizer costs, shipping, inflation, fiscal pressure, and wider development risks. For LAC, the challenge is not uniform. Energy exporters, import-dependent economies, tourism-reliant countries, and fiscally constrained states will experience the shock differently. They agreed on the importance of the region needing a more targeted understanding of exposure, not a one-size-fits-all response.

Prof. Khasru shared his perspective on how external shocks can be converted into a forward-looking resilience agenda, from energy security and food-system preparedness to fiscal risk management, trade resilience, and regional coordination.