Coronavirus | Trump says U.S. terminating relationship with WHO

The U.S. President says WHO has essentially become a puppet organisation of China.

May 30, 2020 01:43 am | Updated December 03, 2021 06:26 am IST - Washington/United Nations

U.S. President Donald Trump

U.S. President Donald Trump

U.S. President Donald Trump on Friday said he is terminating the U.S. relationship with the World Health Organization over its handling of the coronavirus , saying the WHO had essentially become a puppet organization of China.

Appearing in the White House Rose Garden, Mr. Trump went ahead with repeated threats to eliminate American funding for the group, which amounts to hundreds of millions of dollars a year.

Mr. Trump said the WHO had failed to make reforms to the organization that the president had demanded earlier this month. He said Chinese officials “ignored their reporting obligations” about the virus to the WHO and pressured the WHO to “mislead the world” when the virus was first discovered by Chinese authorities.

 

“China has total control over the World Health Organization despite only paying $40 million per year compared to what the United States has been paying which is approximately $450 million a year. We have detailed the reforms that it must make and engaged with them directly but they have refused to act,” Mr. Trump said.

“Because they have failed to make the requested and greatly needed reforms, we will be today terminating our relationship with the World Health Organization and redirecting those funds to other worldwide and deserving urgent global public health needs,” he said.

 

Mr. Trump has long questioned the value of the United Nations and scorned the importance of multilateralism as he focuses on an “America First” agenda. Since taking office, Mr. Trump has quit the U.N. Human Rights Council, the U.N. cultural agency UNESCO, a global accord to tackle climate change and the Iran nuclear deal.

The World Health Organization is a U.N. specialized agency - an independent international body that works with the United Nations. The WHO and a spokesman for U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Mr. Trump's decision.

Top News Today

Sign in to unlock member-only benefits!
  • Access 10 free stories every month
  • Save stories to read later
  • Access to comment on every story
  • Sign-up/manage your newsletter subscriptions with a single click
  • Get notified by email for early access to discounts & offers on our products
Sign in

Comments

Comments have to be in English, and in full sentences. They cannot be abusive or personal. Please abide by our community guidelines for posting your comments.

We have migrated to a new commenting platform. If you are already a registered user of The Hindu and logged in, you may continue to engage with our articles. If you do not have an account please register and login to post comments. Users can access their older comments by logging into their accounts on Vuukle.