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Kuwait to Buy 500MW of Power Through GCC Interconnection Authority

Kuwaiti Electricity Ministry's acting undersecretary, Haitham Al-Ali, and CEO of the GCC Interconnection Authority, Engineer Ahmed Al-Ebrahim, sign the contracts on Sunday (KUNA)
Kuwaiti Electricity Ministry's acting undersecretary, Haitham Al-Ali, and CEO of the GCC Interconnection Authority, Engineer Ahmed Al-Ebrahim, sign the contracts on Sunday (KUNA)
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Kuwait to Buy 500MW of Power Through GCC Interconnection Authority

Kuwaiti Electricity Ministry's acting undersecretary, Haitham Al-Ali, and CEO of the GCC Interconnection Authority, Engineer Ahmed Al-Ebrahim, sign the contracts on Sunday (KUNA)
Kuwaiti Electricity Ministry's acting undersecretary, Haitham Al-Ali, and CEO of the GCC Interconnection Authority, Engineer Ahmed Al-Ebrahim, sign the contracts on Sunday (KUNA)

Kuwait on Sunday signed contracts to buy 500 megawatts (MW) of electricity through the Gulf Cooperation Council Interconnection Authority (GCCIA) to avoid summer blackouts.
The contracts are for 300 MW from Oman and 200 MW from Qatar, the electricity ministry's acting undersecretary, Haitham Al-Ali, told reporters at the signing event, adding that the contracts would last from June 1 to Aug. 31.
Al-Ali explained that the contracts were signed directly with the Gulf Interconnection Authority, which coordinates these transactions with Oman and Qatar on behalf of Kuwait.
He said this brings technical and economic benefits to Kuwait, especially with the proximity of the offers submitted for energy purchase prices to the cost of production.
The GCC Electricity Interconnection Authority oversees the management of a transmission system that integrates the power grids of all six member countries of the Gulf Cooperation Council.
The CEO of the GCC Interconnection Authority, Engineer Ahmed Al-Ebrahim, said in a similar statement that the energy market is one of the most efficient markets in the region.
He noted that the Gulf Electricity Market enables GCC countries to enter into bilateral agreements through a platform, which is responsible for the settlement and billing system that covers the needs of traders.
El-Ebrahim pointed out that the Ministry and the Gulf Interconnection Authority have agreed on the offers submitted for the supply of electric energy to Kuwait during the coming June so that they can be renewed during the coming July and August according to the conditions and needs of interconnected networks from member states.
The State of Kuwait owns 26.7% of the founding shares of the Gulf Interconnection Authority, a joint stock company registered by GCC member states to create an interconnection of power grids between its members, ensure energy supply to the networks of GCC member states, invest and achieve economic benefits in the areas of energy exchange and to diversify the sources of their energy imports.

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Tariff Deal Talks to Dominate IMF-World Bank Meetings This Week

A view of ships under construction at the Shanghai Shipyard in in Shanghai, China, Sunday, April 20, 2025. (Chinatopix via AP)
A view of ships under construction at the Shanghai Shipyard in in Shanghai, China, Sunday, April 20, 2025. (Chinatopix via AP)
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Tariff Deal Talks to Dominate IMF-World Bank Meetings This Week

A view of ships under construction at the Shanghai Shipyard in in Shanghai, China, Sunday, April 20, 2025. (Chinatopix via AP)
A view of ships under construction at the Shanghai Shipyard in in Shanghai, China, Sunday, April 20, 2025. (Chinatopix via AP)

Hundreds of global finance leaders will descend on Washington this week, each with a singular mission: Who can I talk with to cut a trade deal?

The semi-annual gatherings of the International Monetary Fund and World Bank Group are bustling affairs with high-level multilateral policy talks, but also one-on-one meetings between finance ministers eager to broker deals on things like project financing, foreign investment back home and, for poorer economies, debt relief.

This year, rather than policy coordination on climate change, inflation and financial support for Ukraine's struggle against Russia's invasion, one issue will dominate: tariffs.

More specifically, how to get out from under - or at least minimize - the pain from US President Donald Trump's unprecedented barrage of steep import taxes since his return to the White House in January.

And the focus may be largely on one man, new US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, who is Trump's lead negotiator for tariff deals and whose support for the IMF and World Bank remains a question mark.

"Trade wars will dominate the week, as will the bilateral negotiations that nearly every country is trying to pursue in some way, shape or form," said Josh Lipsky, senior director of the Atlantic Council's GeoEconomics Center. "So this becomes a Spring Meetings unlike any others, dominated by one single issue."

'NOTABLE MARKDOWNS'

Trump's tariffs are already darkening the IMF's economic forecasts, due to be released on Tuesday, which will put more pressure on developing country debt burdens.

IMF Managing Director Kristalina Georgieva said last week that the World Economic Outlook's growth projections will include "notable markdowns but not recession," largely due to "off the charts" uncertainty and market volatility caused by the tariff turmoil.

Although Georgieva said the world's real economy continues to function well, she warned that increasingly negative perceptions about the trade turmoil and concerns about recession could slow economic activity.

Lipsky said a potential new challenge for policymakers is whether the dollar will still be a safe haven asset, after Trump's tariffs sparked a sell-off in US Treasury debt.

The IMF and World Bank meetings, along with a sideline gathering of Group of 20 finance leaders have proved crucial forums for coordinating forceful policy actions in times of crisis, such as the COVID-19 pandemic and the 2008-2009 global financial crisis.

This time, with trade ministers in tow, delegations will be aiming to shore up their own economies first, policy experts say.

"The focus of these meetings in the past couple of years, which has been heavily on multilateral development bank reform and to some extent on strengthening the sovereign debt architecture, will fall by the wayside," said Nancy Lee, a former US Treasury official who is a senior policy fellow at the Center for Global Development in Washington.

BESSENT TARIFF TALKS

Japan, pressured by Trump's 25% tariffs on autos and steel and reciprocal tariffs on everything else that could hit 24%, is particularly keen to sew up a US tariff deal quickly.

With talks more advanced than those of other countries and participation by Trump, Japanese Finance Minister Katsunobu Kato is expected to meet with Bessent to resume the negotiations on the sidelines of the IMF and World Bank gathering.

South Korean Finance Minister Choi Sang-mok also accepted an invitation from Bessent to meet this week to discuss trade, Seoul's finance ministry said as the export-dependent US ally seeks to delay implementation of 25% tariffs and cooperate with the US on areas of mutual interest such as energy and shipbuilding.

But many participants in the meetings have questions over the Trump administration's support for the IMF and the World Bank. Project 2025, the hard-right Republican policy manifesto that has influenced many of Trump's decisions to reshape government, has called for the US to withdraw from the institutions.

"I really see a key role for Secretary Bessent in these meetings to answer some very basic questions," Lee said. "First and foremost, does the US view support for MDBs (multilateral development banks) as in its interest?" Lee said.

US FINANCIAL SUPPORT

World Bank President Ajay Banga said last week that he has had constructive discussions with the Trump administration, but he did not know whether it would fund the $4 billion US contribution to the bank's fund for the world's poorest countries pledged last year by former president Joe Biden's administration.

Banga also is expected to expand this week on the bank's energy financing pivot from primarily renewables to include nuclear and more gas projects and a shift towards more climate adaptation projects -- a mix more in line with Trump's priorities.

Bessent did back the IMF's new, $20 billion loan program for Argentina, traveling to Buenos Aires last week in a show of support for the country's economic reforms and saying the US wanted more such alternatives to "rapacious" bilateral loan deals with China.

Three former career Treasury officials who later represented the US on the IMF executive board called the Fund "a great financial deal for America."

Meg Lundsager, Elizabeth Shortino and Mark Sobel said in an opinion piece published in The Hill newspaper that the IMF offers the US, the dominant shareholder, substantial economic influence at virtually zero cost.

"If the US steps back from the IMF, China wins," they wrote. "Our influence allows us to shape the IMF to achieve American priorities."