Washington, D.C. The U.S. will return to the United Nations’ educational and scientific body after a five-year absence that started with Donald Trump’s administration, according to the Biden administration.
US aims to rejoin UN scientific and educational organization
According to the State Department, a letter requesting re-admission to the Paris-based organization known as UNESCO was delivered late last week. Richard Verma, the deputy secretary of state for management, allegedly offered “a plan for the U.S. to rejoin the organization” in a letter dated June 8, according to the department.
We think that UNESCO leadership will present our recommendation to the membership in the coming days. Any such action would require approval from UNESCO’s current membership, the department mentioned in a statement.
The proposal’s specifics were not immediately evident. The United States owes the organization a substantial sum of money for past-due dues payments. To pay for a return to UNESCO, the administration set aside $150 million earlier this year in its current budget plan.
Since their ideological disagreements during the Cold War and the Israeli-Palestinian conflict more recently, the U.S. and UNESCO have had a tumultuous relationship. The United States of America left UNESCO in 1983 under the leadership of former President Ronald Reagan, but George W. Bush brought the country back in 2002. In 2017, Trump cut ties with the organization due to what he claimed was its anti-Israel bias. At the same time, Israel also announced its departure, which became effective in January 2018.
When the Biden administration initially assumed office, it declared its intention to re-join UNESCO. And when the budget for the upcoming fiscal year was revealed in March, According to John Bass, Under Secretary of State for Management, the administration thought that entering UNESCO would strengthen the United States in its global competition with China, which has made substantial donations to U.N. organizations.
Getting back with UNESCO will “help us address a key opportunity cost that our absence is creating in our global competition with China,” he noted.
From my perspective, with a clear-eyed set of interests, we can no longer afford to be dropping from one of the primary fora where norms surrounding education for science and technology are defined, Bass said.
If we are really serious about competing with China in the digital age And in other instances where UNESCO’s mission is being carried out, he kept going, our absence is noted and undermines our ability to be as effective in advancing our vision of a free world.
Published by Reporters News Wire
