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December 23, 2024

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Election on his mind, Donald Trump goes after WHO chief and China

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US President Donald Trump has halted funding to the World Health Organisation for its handling of the coronavirus pandemic, a decision attributed to his assessment that the Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus-led global health body had been biased towards China and given the world, and him, what he has described as “faulty recommendations”.

Trump’s decision to hold back funding for the WHO at a time the world is still struggling to stop the virus that has infected close to 2 million and killed over 1.2 lakh has been criticised by several countries. Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison said he sympathised with Trump’s criticisms of the WHO and it wasn’t immune from criticism. But, he underlined, they weren’t going to throw the baby out of the bathwater here.

People familiar with the developments in Washington and New Delhi suggest that Trump’s targeted attacks on the WHO chief could be also linked to the Ethopian microbiologist’s May 2017 election with China’s backing. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus had defeated the US-backed Dr David Nabarro, who was the candidate of the UK.

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Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus’s term as WHO director general is due to end in 2022. “If the support that Dr Tedros has received after the attacks on him are anything to go by, it is clear that the WHO director general may be on his way to get a second term if he so chooses,” a person familiar with the development said.

The 55-member African Union and 120 member Non-Aligned Movement (NAM) have already come out in support of Dr Tedros’ handling of the Covid-19 outbreak. He would just need a simple majority in the world health body that has 194 countries as members.

This means that the United States – President Trump if he returns to power in the US presidential elections just months away – will have to do some serious heavy lifting to ensure the China-backed microbiologist is not re-elected.

As the Trump administration did last month to ensure that the US-backed Singaporean candidate Daren Tang is elected as Director General of World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) defeating heavily-favoured Wang Binying, the candidate from China, which has been accused of having a shaky record on intellectual property protection and enforcement.

President Trump’s suspension of funding to the WHO is a huge setback. The United States is the biggest overall donor to the Geneva-based WHO, contributing more than $400 million in 2019, roughly 15% of its budget.

American taxpayers provide between $ 400 million and $ 500 million per year to the WHO, in contrast, China contributes roughly USD 40 million a year and even less, Trump said.

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