The United States has announced that it does not intend to pay around $80 million owed to the World Health Organization (WHO), and will be using the money to help pay its United Nations bill in New York, Reuters reports.
The US plans to leave the WHO on July 6, 2021.
Dr. Alma Golden, US Agency for International Development assistant administrator for global health, said a one-time payment of $68 million would be made to the WHO for health assistance in Libya and Syria and efforts to eradicate polio in priority countries because these “reflect the few cases in which WHO has the unique capability that an alternate partner could not replicate at this time.”
US President Donald Trump has accused the WHO of being a "puppet" for China during the coronavirus pandemic. His rival for the presidency, Joe Biden, has said he will rejoin the WHO if he defeats Trump.