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US is terminating its relationship with the WHO: Trump

WION Web Team
New Delhi Updated: May 30, 2020, 08:22 AM IST
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WHO director-general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus (file photo). Photograph:(AFP)

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The move to quit the Geneva-based body, which the United States formally joined in 1948, comes amid growing tensions between Washington and Beijing over the coronavirus outbreak. The virus first emerged in China's Wuhan city late last year.

The United States is terminating its relationship with the World Health Organization over the body's handling of the coronavirus pandemic, US President Donald Trump said on Friday, accusing the UN agency of becoming a puppet of China.

The move to quit the Geneva-based body, which the United States formally joined in 1948, comes amid growing tensions between Washington and Beijing over the coronavirus outbreak. The virus first emerged in China's Wuhan city late last year.

Speaking in the White House Rose Garden, Trump said Chinese officials "ignored their reporting obligations" to the WHO about the virus - that has killed hundreds of thousands of people globally - and pressured the agency to "mislead the world."

Trump alleged that China had total control over WHO despite paying only $40 million a year.

"China has total control over WHO despite only paying $40 million a year compared to what the US has been paying which is approx $450 million a year. Because they have failed to make requested and needed reforms today we will be terminating our relationship with WHO," Trump said. 

China's cover-up of the Wuhan virus allowed the disease to spread all over the world, instigating a global pandemic that has caused over 100000 American lives and over a million lives worldwide, he said.

Trump also accused Chinese officials of ignoring their reporting obligations to the WHO.