US President Donald Trump has pulled the US out of over 60 international organizations, including UN bodies and the India-France-led International Solar Alliance. He called these institutions “redundant” and “contrary” to America’s interest.
He on Wednesday signed the memorandum labelled as ‘Withdrawing the United States from the International Organizations, Conventions, and Treaties that Are Contrary to the Interests of the United States.
“The United States would be the first country to walk away from the UNFCCC,” said Manish Bapna, president and CEO of the Natural Resources Defense Council.
“Every other nation is a member, in part because they recognize that even beyond the moral imperative of addressing climate change, having a seat at the table in those negotiations represents an ability to shape massive economic policy and opportunity,” said Bapna.
The United States will also quit UN Women, which works to advance gender equality and the empowerment of women, and the UN Population Fund (UNFPA), the UN agency focused on family planning as well as maternal and child health in more than 150 countries. The U.S. had cut its funding to UNFPA last year.
“For United Nations entities, withdrawal means ceasing participation in or funding to those entities to the extent permitted by law,” reads the memo.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio said the Trump administration had found the 66 institutions to be “redundant in their scope, mismanaged, unnecessary, wasteful, poorly run, captured by actors advancing agendas contrary to our own, or a threat to our nation’s sovereignty, freedoms, and overall prosperity.”
“President Trump is clear: It is no longer acceptable to be sending these institutions the blood, sweat, and treasure of the American people, with little to nothing to show for it. The days of billions of dollars in taxpayer money flowing to foreign interests at the expense of our people are over,” Rubio said.
