DIPLOMACY
Trump orders US exit from the World Health Organization
The United States will leave the World Health Organization, President Donald Trump said on Monday, saying the global health agency had mishandled the COVID-19 pandemic and other international health crises.
Trump said the WHO had failed to act independently from the “inappropriate political influence of WHO member states” and required “unfairly onerous payments” from the U.S. that were disproportionate to the sums provided by other, larger countries, such as China.
“World Health ripped us off, everybody rips off the United States. It’s not going to happen anymore,” Trump said at the signing of an executive order on the withdrawal, shortly after his inauguration to a second term.
The WHO did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
When asked about Trump’s decision and remarks, China’s foreign ministry told a regular press briefing on Tuesday that the role of the WHO in global health governance should only be strengthened, not weakened.
“China will continue to support the WHO in fulfilling its responsibilities, and deepen international public health cooperation,” said Guo Jiakun, a ministry spokesperson.
The move means the U.S. will leave the United Nations health agency in 12 months’ time and stop all financial contributions to its work. The United States is by far the WHO’s biggest financial backer, contributing around 18% of its overall funding. WHO’s most recent two-year budget, for 2024-2025, was $6.8 billion.
The U.S. departure will likely put at risk programs across the organization, according to several experts both inside and outside the WHO, notably those tackling tuberculosis, the world’s biggest infectious disease killer, as well as HIV/AIDS and other health emergencies.
Trump’s order said the administration would cease negotiations on the WHO pandemic treaty while the withdrawal is in progress. U.S. government personnel working with the WHO will be recalled and reassigned, and the government will look for partners to take over necessary WHO activities, according to the order.
The government will review, rescind, and replace the 2024 U.S. Global Health Security Strategy as soon as practicable, the order said.
The next-largest donors to the WHO are the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, although most of that funding goes to polio eradication, and the global vaccine group Gavi, followed by the European Commission and the World Bank. The next-largest national donor is Germany, which contributes around 3% of the WHO’s funding.
Trump’s withdrawal from the WHO is not unexpected. He took steps to quit the body in 2020, during his first term as president, accusing the WHO of aiding China’s efforts to “mislead the world” about the origins of COVID.
WHO vigorously denies the allegation and says it continues to press Beijing to share data to determine whether COVID emerged from human contact with infected animals or due to research into similar viruses in a domestic laboratory.
Trump also suspended U.S. contributions to the agency, costing it nearly $200 million in 2020-2021 versus the previous two-year budgets, as it battled the world’s worst health emergency in a century.
Under U.S. law, leaving the WHO requires a one-year notice period, and the payment of any outstanding fees. Before the U.S. withdrawal could be completed last time, Joe Biden won the country’s presidential election and put a stop to it on his first day in office on Jan. 20, 2021.
-Reuters
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More countries are putting their weight behind Morocco’s sovereignty over the Western Sahara as France becomes the latest to do so.
In a statement released Tuesday by the French Ministry for Europe and Foreign Affairs following a meeting between the French Minister for Europe and Foreign Affairs, Jean-Noël Barrot, and Morocco’s Minister of Foreign Affairs, African Cooperation and Moroccan Expatriates Nasser Bourita, France reaffirmed its “unwavering” position on the issue of the Moroccan Sahara.
The statement reiterates the position expressed by President Emmanuel Macron to King Mohammed VI in his letter dated July 30, 2024, emphasizing that “for France, the present and future of Western Sahara lie within the framework of Moroccan sovereignty,” while recalling the “unwavering nature of France’s position” and its commitment to “act consistently with this position at both the national and international levels.”
Furthermore, the French Minister reiterated France’s “clear and consistent support for the autonomy plan under Moroccan sovereignty,” describing it as “the only framework within which this issue should be resolved” and stressing that it is “the sole basis” for reaching a political solution, according to the statement.
Noting the “growing international consensus” in support of Morocco’s autonomy initiative, Jean-Noël Barrot stated that France intends to fully contribute to this momentum.
Additionally, France reaffirmed its commitment “to support Morocco’s significant efforts in promoting economic and social development” in the southern provinces of the Kingdom, highlighting the various measures taken in this regard and expressing its willingness to continue this dynamic, according to the same source.
The United States has again reaffirmed Morocco’s sovereignty over the Western Sahara. This came up in a communication by US President Donald Trump to the Moroccan monarch, King Mohammed VI.
At a meeting on Tuesday in Washington between Morocco’s Minister of Foreign Affairs, African Cooperation and Moroccan Expatriates, Nasser Bourita, and U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio, the latter reiterated that “the United States recognizes Moroccan sovereignty over [the] Sahara.”
Earlier, during a phone conversation in December 2020 between His Majesty King Mohammed VI and the President of the United States, Donald Trump, the U.S. President informed the Sovereign of the issuance of a presidential proclamation, an act with undeniable legal and political weight and immediate effect, announcing the decision of the United States to recognize the full sovereignty of the Kingdom of Morocco over the entire Moroccan Sahara region.
The head of American diplomacy also reiterated that the U.S. “supports Morocco’s serious, credible, and realistic Autonomy Proposal as the only basis for a just and lasting solution to the dispute,” Spokesperson for the United States Department of State, Tammy Bruce, said.
Marco Rubio also reiterated that the U.S. “continues to believe that genuine autonomy under Moroccan sovereignty is the only feasible solution.”
In this respect, he stated that the U.S. President is “urging for the parties to engage in discussions without delay, using Morocco’s Autonomy Proposal as the only framework, to negotiate a mutually acceptable solution.”
The Secretary of State noted that “the United States would facilitate progress toward this aim,” the Spokesperson concluded.
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In about two years from now, the United States will mark the 250th anniversary of the country getting its first international recognition.
On December 1, 2027, it will be 250 years since the Kingdom of Morocco recognised the US, becoming the first country to recognize the United States of America.
To mark the occasion, a resolution has been introduced into the U.S. House of Representatives that officially marks the upcoming date of December 1, 2027 date.
The 250th anniversary is considered “a milestone in one of the longest-standing diplomatic relationships in United States history.”.
According to reports from Maghreb Insider, the bill was proposed by Rep. Brad Schneider (IL-10) and Joe Wilson, the Representative from South Carolina and referred to the Committee on Foreign Affairs.
The resolution reaffirms a great many long-standing bilateral relations including everything from how “Moroccan-American communities contribute to the cultural diversity of the United States and maintain deep connections to their heritage; to how Morocco remains the only African country with a Free Trade Agreement (FTA) with the United States, to the United States and Morocco cooperate closely on regional security, counterterrorism efforts, and military coordination, including participation in joint military exercises such as African Lion.”
The bill sums up by saying that the U.S. supports all efforts to commemorate the 250th anniversary and the lead-up to 2027, highlighting the “historical and strategic importance of the United States-Morocco alliance.”
This resolution is in the first stage of the legislative process. It will typically be considered by the committee next before it is possibly sent on to the House or Senate as a whole.
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