The United States will withdraw from dozens of international organizations, including the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) and the UN agreement that establishes international climate negotiations (UNFCCC – the framework of the 2015 Paris Agreement).
President Donald Trump on Wednesday signed an executive order suspending U.S. support for 66 organizations, agencies, and commissions. He tasked his administration with reviewing U.S. participation in and funding of all international organizations, including those affiliated with the United Nations, according to a statement from the White House posted on social media.
Most of the targets are UN-linked agencies, commissions, and advisory panels focused on climate, labor, and other issues that the Trump administration has categorized as population diversity (diversity) issues and initiatives related to raising awareness of various forms of discrimination, according to a partial list obtained by AP.
“The Trump administration has determined that these institutions are redundant in scope, poorly managed, unnecessary, wasteful, poorly led, captured by the interests of actors promoting agendas contrary to ours, or pose a threat to the sovereignty, freedoms, and overall prosperity of our nation,” the State Department said in a statement.
Trump’s decision for the U.S. to leave organizations that encourage cooperation among countries in addressing global challenges comes at a time when his administration has launched military efforts or issued threats that have unsettled both allies and adversaries, including tightening pressure on Venezuela’s autocratic leader Nicolás Maduro and hinting at an intention to take Greenland from Denmark.
The administration previously suspended support for the World Health Organization, the UN agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA), the UN Human Rights Council, and the UN cultural agency UNESCO, as Washington adopted a broader, “à la carte” approach to paying its dues to the world body—choosing which operations and agencies it believes align with Trump’s agenda and which no longer serve U.S. interests.
“I think this is the crystallization of the American approach to multilateralism, which is ‘it’s either my way or the highway,’” said Daniel Forti, head of UN affairs at the International Crisis Group. “It’s a very clear vision of a desire for international cooperation on Washington’s terms,” he explained.
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This marks a major shift from how previous administrations—both Republican and Democratic—have engaged with the UN, and it has forced the world organization, already undergoing its own internal reassessment, to respond with a series of staff and program cuts.
Many independent nongovernmental agencies—some working with the United Nations—have cited the closure of numerous projects following the U.S. administration’s decision last year to reduce foreign aid through the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID).
Despite the major change, U.S. officials, including Trump himself, say they want to direct taxpayer money toward expanding American influence in many UN standard-setting initiatives where there is competition with China, such as the International Telecommunication Union, the International Maritime Organization, and the International Labour Organization.
Withdrawal from the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) is the latest attempt by Trump and his allies to distance the U.S. from international organizations focused on climate and addressing climate change.
The UNFCCC, a 1992 agreement among 198 countries on financial support for climate-related activities in developing nations, is the foundational treaty for the landmark Paris climate agreement. Trump, who has called climate change a hoax, withdrew the U.S. from that agreement shortly after returning to the White House.
However, scientists say climate change is behind a growing number of deadly and costly extreme weather events, including floods, droughts, wildfires, intense rainfall, and dangerous heat.
U.S. withdrawal could hinder global efforts to curb “greenhouse gases” that warm the planet because it “gives other countries an excuse to delay their actions and commitments,” said Stanford University climatologist Rob Jackson, who chairs the Global Carbon Project, a group of scientists that tracks carbon dioxide emissions.
Experts also said it will be difficult to achieve significant progress on climate change without U.S. cooperation, given that the country is one of the world’s largest polluters and among the largest economies.
The UN population agency, which supports sexual and reproductive health worldwide, has long been a “lightning rod” for Republican opposition, and Trump himself cut funding to the agency during his first term. He and other Republican officials accused the agency of participating in “coercive abortion practices” in countries such as China.
When President Joseph Biden took office in January 2021, he restored funding to the agency. A State Department review conducted the following year found no evidence to support Trump’s claims of “coercive abortion practices.”
Other organizations and agencies the U.S. will leave include the Clean Energy Agreement, the United Nations University, the International Cotton Advisory Committee, the International Tropical Timber Organization, the Atlantic Cooperation Partnership, the Pan American Institute of Geography and History, the International Federation of Arts Councils and Culture Agencies, and the International Lead and Zinc Study Group.
The State Department said additional reviews are underway of agencies and organizations from which the U.S. may withdraw.
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Source: N1; Foto: Reuters