US out of WHO, halts all foreign aid
US President Donald Trump slammed WHO for Covid and said US aid programs have destabilised the world
Washington: The US has quit the World Health Organization (WHO) on the grounds that the premier global health body mishandled the Covid-19 pandemic, failed to reform, and wasn’t independent of the “political influence” of certain member states, a hint at China.
Trump has also halted all US foreign aid for a period of 90 days to study its efficacy and consistency with US foreign policy. In the order making the decision, Trump slammed the US “foreign aid industry and bureaucracy” for not being “aligned with American interests and in many cases antithetical to American values”. The order alleged that US foreign aid had served to “destabilise world peace by promoting ideas in foreign countries that are directly inverse to harmonious and stable relations internal to and among countries.”
Trump’s decision to withdraw from the Paris climate accord and WHO, his instruction to the Secretary of State through a formal order to follow an America First policy, and his decision to halt all foreign aid represent a dramatic set of moves that suggest the US will be more insular and guided by what it thinks is in its narrow tangible interest, it will deprive organisations dependent on US support of funds, and it will potentially leave space for other international actors to fill the void.
The WHO order
In the order on WHO, Trump said that the US is withdrawing because of WHO’s role in Covid, and “its inability to demonstrate independence from the inappropriate political influence of WHO member states”; The US, under Trump, had slammed the organisation for being too sympathetic to China’s narrative when the pandemic broke out and withdrawn from WHO in 2020.
The order added, “The WHO continues to demand unfairly onerous payments from the United States, far out of proportion with other countries’ assessed payments. China, with a population of 1.4 billion, has 300 percent of the population of the United States, yet contributes nearly 90% less to the WHO.”
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Trump has also instructed the Secretary of State and the office of management and budget to “pause the future transfer of any United States Government funds, support, or resources to the WHO”, to recall and reassign any US government personnel working in WHO; and to identify other partners who can assume tasks undertaken by WHO.
In the order, Trump also said that the US would cease any negotiations on the WHO Pandemic Agreement and the amendments to the International Health Regulations and that these would not apply to the US.
Trump asked his national security advisor to set “directorates and coordinating mechanisms” within the national security council to “safeguard public health and fortify biosecurity”.
Foreign aid
The US is pausing all foreign aid for the next 90 days till it studies whether these are consistent with foreign policy goals. Trump’s order stated, “All department and agency heads with responsibility for United States foreign development assistance programs shall immediately pause new obligations and disbursements of development assistance funds to foreign countries and implementing non-governmental organisations, international organizations, and contractors pending reviews of such programs for programmatic efficiency and consistency with United States foreign policy, to be conducted within 90 days of this order.”
It added that the Secretary of State, in consultation with the Office of Management and Budget, will issue guidelines to agencies to “review each foreign assistance program”. Based on this review, they will determine whether to “continue, modify, or cease” these programmes.
The decision will impact US diplomacy and activities in every country, on every policy issue, and affect hundreds of thousands civil society outfits and NGO personnel who work with US support.
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