Blitz Bureau
NEW DELHI: In a sweeping ideology-driven move targeting the UN, President Donald Trump is pulling the US out of 66 international organisations including 31 linked to UN, alleging that they no longer serve American interests. Trump on January 7 forbade US departments and agencies from participating in or funding those entities and 35 non-UN organisations.
“They operate contrary to US national interests, security, economic prosperity, or sovereignty” and “advance globalist agendas over US priorities,” the White House said. Secretary of State Marco Rubio said, these organisations actively seek to constrain US sovereignty and their work is advanced by the same elite networks”, which he derisively called the “multilateral NGO-plex”.’
Enforcing the America First policy that Trump campaigned on, Rubio added, “We seek cooperation where it serves our people and will stand firm where it does not”. Many of the organisations on the list work in areas like climate change, gender and population that run counter to the president’s ideology, as well as those in trade and economic fields.
Important among them are the UN Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD), International Trade Centre, UN Framework Conference on Climate Change, UN Population Fund, and the UN’s Department of Economic and Social Affairs, economic and social commissions for Asia and other regions, and the Entity for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women.
While some like UNCTAD and the Population Fund receive direct contributions, many on the hit list are funded by the UN’s regular budget for which Washington’s mandated share is 22 per cent. Trump has not released the US contribution of $820 million for 2025 that was approved by Congress, and his administration has proposed cutting the US contribution this year by $610 million.