President of the United States Donald Trump said on Friday that the US is terminating its relationship with World Health Organization in view of the body’s handing of the Wuhan virus pandemic. He accused the UN agency of becoming a puppet of China.
The US’s move to quit the body comes amid rising tensions between US and the China over the Coronavirus pandemic which originated in Wuhan in December 2019.
President Trump said that the Chinese officials ‘ignored their reporting obligations’ to the WHO and for pressured the agency to mislead the world about the virus leading to hundreds of thousands of death globally. He alleged that China had total control over the body despite paying only $40 million a year while the US has been paying $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.
President Trump had earlier threatened to stop funding the WHO accusing that the body “failed in its basic duty” in its response. On May 18, he wrote a letter to WHO saying “It is clear the repeated missteps by you and your organisation in responding to the pandemic have been extremely costly for the world”.