US President Donald Trump has announced that the United States will withdraw from dozens of international organizations and bodies connected to the United Nations, marking a major pullback from global cooperation on issues ranging from climate change to agriculture.
According to the White House, the decision affects 66 international organizations and bodies, including 31 entities associated with the United Nations system. The administration said the move reflects a reassessment of Washington’s participation in global institutions.
In a statement, the White House explained that the United States would exit the organizations and stop all funding to them, arguing that their activities run counter to US national interests, security, economic prosperity and sovereignty.
“Many of these bodies promote radical climate policies, global governance, and ideological programs that conflict with U.S. sovereignty and economic strength,” the White House said.
Reacting to the development, United Nations Director for the International Crisis Group, Richard Gowan, said the move signals that the US is stepping away from institutions that promote international law, economic development, environmental collaboration and gender rights.
Gowan noted that since Trump returned to office last year, his administration has viewed development and environmental cooperation as quasi-socialist agendas and has been sharply critical of initiatives aimed at promoting gender equality.
Among the prominent organizations affected is the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, IPCC, a leading scientific body that provides research and policy guidance on global climate issues. The United States is also set to leave the Global Forum on Migration and Development, which played a key role in shaping the 2018 United Nations migration compact that Trump officials previously rejected as a threat to national sovereignty.
The UN Population Fund, the primary agency supporting reproductive health and rights worldwide, is also included in the list. During Trump’s first term, his administration cut off all funding to the agency, with critics accusing it of promoting abortion.
Some of the organizations targeted by the withdrawal are less prominent, including the International Cotton Advisory Committee, an international body for cotton-producing countries that was founded in Washington nearly 90 years ago.
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio welcomed the decision, stating that many international organizations had become vehicles for a globalist agenda. He said they were rooted in what he described as the discredited idea of the end of History and were primarily designed to limit American sovereignty.
