(AFP) – The United States has still not paid off its membership fee arrears at the World Health Organization, the WHO chief said Wednesday, with Washington’s intention to leave conditional on paying up. The UN health agency’s director-general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said he hoped the United States would come up with the money they owe — a self-imposed condition for quitting the organisation.
US President Donald Trump, on his first day back in office in January 2025, handed the WHO his country’s one-year withdrawal notice. “In terms of the arrears from the US, the US withdrawal is conditioned with two things,” Tedros told a press conference with the UN correspondents’ association ACANU. “One is notification one year in advance, which is actually met. And the second is paying the arrears, so we hope they will do that but we haven’t received anything yet.”
The United States was the biggest contributor to the WHO budget. Tedros said there were “no signals” indicating that Washington would come up with the cash. But he added: “To be honest, it’s not about the money. The issue is health security needs universality and the US, by withdrawing, makes itself unsafe and makes the rest of the world unsafe. So it’s lose-lose.”
“So our focus is not on the money. The focus is on helping the US to understand and reconsider. Where there is a vacuum, the virus wins. It’s as simple as that. It’s global cooperation and solidarity which is the best response.”
Though the US flag no longer flies outside the WHO headquarters in Geneva, the WHO’s decision-making body — the annual assembly of member states — will decide upon the US withdrawal when it meets from May 18-23. The WHO constitution does not include a withdrawal clause.
But the United States reserved the right to withdraw when it joined the WHO in 1948 — on condition of giving one year’s notice and meeting its financial obligations in full for that fiscal year. The notice period has now expired but Washington has still not paid its 2024 or 2025 dues, owing around $260 million.
The United States was traditionally the biggest donor to the WHO. In January, as the notice expired, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio and US Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. attacked the WHO, claiming it had “tarnished and trashed everything that America has done for it,” with “the insults to America” continuing to the end.
“The reverse is true,” the WHO responded. Despite the parting shot from Kennedy, the US health secretary still speaks with Tedros on a regular basis. “We keep in touch every now and then,” the WHO chief told reporters.
© 2024 AFP
