(Reuters) – U.S. President Donald Trump has instructed his administration to temporarily halt funding to the World Health Organization (WHO) over its handling of the COVID-19 disease pandemic.
Trump said the WHO had “failed in its basic duty and it must be held accountable”. He said it promoted China’s “disinformation” about the coronavirus that was likely to have led to a wider outbreak of disease.
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.
CHINA’S FOREIGN MINISTRY
China urged the United States to fulfil its obligations to the WHO. Foreign Ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian said the coronavirus pandemic, which has infected nearly 2 million people globally, was at a critical stage and that the U.S. decision would affect all countries.
GERMAN FOREIGN MINISTER HEIKO MAAS
“Apportioning blame doesn’t help. The virus knows no borders,” Maas said on Twitter on Wednesday.
“We have to work closely together against #COVID19. One of the best investments is to strengthen the @UN, especially the under-funded @WHO, for example for developing and distributing tests and vaccines.”
NEW ZEALAND PRIME MINISTER JACINDA ARDERN
“At a time like this when we need to be sharing information and we need to have advice we can rely on, the WHO has provided that. We will continue to support it and continue to make our contributions,” she said.
AUSTRALIAN PRIME MINISTER SCOTT MORRISON
Morrison said he sympathised with Trump’s criticisms of the WHO, especially its support of re-opening China’s “wet markets”, where freshly slaughtered animals are sold and where the outbreak first appeared in the city of Wuhan late last year.
“But that said, the WHO also as an organisation does a lot of important work including here in our region in the Pacific and we work closely with them,” Morrison said.
“We are not going to throw the baby out with the bathwater here, but they are also not immune from criticism and immune from doing things better.”