We are talking, of course, about the recent ultimatum of Donald Trump: the World Health Organization (WHO) must make changes in its work and prove its independence from China, otherwise the U.S. will completely stop funding the organization and cancel its membership. This was stated in a letter from the U.S. President to WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, tweeted by the American leader. On April 14, Trump instructed his administration to suspend contributions to the WHO while analyzing its work, called the organization “pro-Chinese” and accused it of concealing data on the spread of coronavirus.
Ultimatum appeals to international institutions and multilateral organizations, including the UN, is unfortunately a part of the American political tradition. However, now that the Coronavirus pandemic has changed a lot in world politics, the attitude towards the American ultimatums is also changing.
Firstly, the head of the WHO almost immediately and openly responded to the criticism of the U.S. President, saying that the organization does not hide from the United States and other countries any information on the fight against coronavirus infection. Hebrews added that specialists from the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) had worked with WHO since the first day of the pandemic.
Secondly, Trump’s ultimatum came during the days of the 73rd World Health Assembly (which was just discussing WHO reform), and now, “for the sake of purity of the experiment”, we can see its reaction. The Assembly supported a resolution that called for an “impartial, independent and comprehensive assessment” of the international response to COVID-19 as soon as possible. However, the document does not mention China, and there is no call to clarify the origin of the virus. None of the 194 Member States of the WHO, including the United States, objected to the resolution.
Third, ultimatums threatening to withhold membership fees (even if they are large) no longer frighten everyone as they used to. US contributions to WHO ($400 million per year) are significant and 10 times higher than Chinese ones.
However, China is going to provide 2 billion dollars in aid to countries affected by coronavirus in the next two years. This was stated by Chinese President Xi Jinping, speaking at the opening of the Assembly, which for the first time in the history was held virtually.
According to the Chinese leader, Beijing in cooperation with the UN will create a global humanitarian warehouse and hub in China to ensure the stability of supply chains of antiepidemic means. “Chinese coronavirus vaccines developed in the future will be available worldwide and will serve as China’s worthy contribution to making vaccines available in developing countries”, – said Xi Jinping. This is a practical contribution to future WHO reform.
And it makes a fundamental difference not only at WHO, but also at other institutions and organizations that depend on international funding. If there are no American funds and resources – there will be others, which will allow us not to “bend” under someone else’s political will. One of the side effects of COVID-19 is the decline of the era of ultimatums and political dictates.
Ed.’s note: The Author of this piece is Doctor of Political Science, Fll Member of the Academy of Military Sciences, Chief Researcher of the Far East Institute of the Russian Academy of Sciences.
The Ethiopian Herald June 5,2020
BY VLADIMIR PETROVSKY
