US President Donald Trump has signed an executive order starting the process of withdrawing America from the World Health Organisation, the second time in less than five years that the US has ordered to withdraw from the world body.
It was among dozens of executive actions he signed after being sworn in on Monday for a second term, on issues ranging from immigration to foreign policy to climate change.
The World Health Organisation (WHO) was severely roasted by Trump last year 2020 for failing to contain COVID-19 properly, which became a world health crisis by the last year of his first term.
'That's huge, Trump declared to reporters who were present with him in the Oval Office at the White House as an aide presented to him an executive order on this and asked him to sign it.
We paid $500 million to World Health when I was here, and I terminated it. China, with 1.4 billion people, has 350 dependents. nobody knows what we have because so many people came in illegally. But let's say we have 325 (million people). They (China) had 1.4 billion people. They were paying USD39 million. We were paying USD500 million. It seemed a little unfair to me, he said.That wasn't the reason, but I dropped out (of WHO). They offered me to come back for USD39 million. In theory, it should be less than that, but, when Biden came back, they came back for USD500 million. He knew that you could have come back for USD39 million. They wanted us back so badly. So we will see, he said.
The order said that Trump was writing a presidential letter to the UN secretary-general formally notifying him of the US intention to withdraw.
The U.S. recognized its resignation from the World Health Organization in 2020 based on the mishandling of the COVID-19 pandemic that came about as a result of Wuhan, China, and other global health crises; failure to embrace urgently needed reforms; and inability to show independence from the inappropriate political influence of WHO member states, according to the executive order.
Furthermore, 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 per cent of the population of the United States, yet contributes nearly 90 per cent less to the WHO, it said adding that the United States intends to withdraw from the WHO.
The global health body stands to lose hundreds of millions of dollars in funding following Trump's order.
This is the second attempt made by Trump in withdrawing the US from the WHO.
He, in July 2020, sent a letter to WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus notifying him of the US intention to withdraw within a year. At that time, Trump had accused the WHO of helping China mislead the world about the spread of Covid-19.
But Trump was defeated in that year's election, and when President Joe Biden took office in January 2021, he reversed Trump's decision.
This time, Trump will still be in office when the withdrawal would go into effect. The Executive Order also directs the establishment of directorates and coordinating mechanisms within the National Security Council apparatus as he deems necessary and appropriate to safeguard public health and fortify biosecurity.
Read also| Watch| PM Modi Congratulates 'Dear Friend' Trump on Being Sworn In as 47th US President
Read also| Trump Sworn In as President, Declares America's 'Golden Age' Has Begun
