The Joe Biden administration has announced that after a five-year absence that began when Donald Trump was president, the United States will rejoin the UN’s educational and scientific organization, UNESCO.
The State Department revealed that it had delivered a letter requesting reinstatement to the Paris-based body late last week. In the June 8 letter, Assistant Secretary of State for Management Richard Verma proposed “a plan for the United States to rejoin the organization,” the department said in a statement.
“Any such action requires the agreement of current UNESCO members, and we understand that UNESCO leadership will communicate our proposal to members in the coming days.”is in the statement.
Details of the proposal were not disclosed. The United States owes the organization a substantial amount for late payment of dues. But earlier this year, the administration set aside $150 million (€140 million) in its current budget plan to pay for the return to UNESCO.
The United States and UNESCO have had a turbulent relationship over the past four decades, with mostly ideological issues discussed during the Cold War and, more recently, the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
Former President Ronald Reagan withdrew the United States from UNESCO in 1983, but President George W. Bush rejoined it in 2002. Donald Trump withdrew the country from the office in 2017, citing his perceived anti-Israel bias. Tel Aviv simultaneously announced its withdrawal and the withdrawals took effect in January 2018.
The current president, Joe Biden, declared his intention to rejoin UNESCO upon taking office.
In March, when the budget for the next fiscal year was presented, Secretary of State for Management John Bass said the government believed joining UNESCO would help the United States in its global rivalry with China, which has invested money in UN organizations .
“It will help us address a key opportunity cost that is causing our absence from our global competition with China”he said.
“If we really want to seriously compete with China in the digital age, I believe we cannot afford to be absent from one of the most important forums where the relative standards are set. Science and technology education”he added.
The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) was founded in 1945.
Source: DN
