Germany, Russia slam Trump’s WHO payment freeze

Germany slammed Wednesday the US decision to suspend payments to the World Health Organization (WHO), as Angela Merkel’s spokesman underlined the country’s commitment to international cooperation. US President Donald Trump announced the funding freeze on Tuesday, accusing the WHO of “severely mismanaging” the spread of the virus. “Blaming others won’t help. The virus knows no […]

Germany slammed Wednesday the US decision to suspend payments to the World Health Organization (WHO), as Angela Merkel’s spokesman underlined the country’s commitment to international cooperation.

US President Donald Trump announced the funding freeze on Tuesday, accusing the WHO of “severely mismanaging” the spread of the virus.

“Blaming others won’t help. The virus knows no borders,” German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas wrote on Twitter.

“One of the best investments is to strengthen the UN, above all the under-financed WHO… in the development and distribution of tests and vaccines.”

Merkel spokesman Steffen Seibert, meanwhile, said that the WHO was doing “unbelievably important work”.

“The government is convinced of the need to support and sufficiently finance the WHO,” he added.

The United States is the biggest contributor to the WHO, making payments of $400 million last year.

Trump accused the Geneva-based body of putting “political correctness above life-saving measures”.

The move sparked criticism across the world, and Berlin joined the chorus on Wednesday, with Seibert saying that the pandemic was cause to “uphold our fundamental belief in the benefits of multilateralism”.

Foreign Minister Maas, meanwhile, stressed the need for countries to “work together closely against COVID-19”.

Maas has previously taken aim at the Trump administration’s reaction to the virus crisis.

In an interview with Der Spiegel magazine last week, he said the United States had “played down the virus for a very long time”.

“There really isn’t any dispute, even in the USA, that many of the measures were taken too late,” he told Spiegel.

A senior Russian official also described Trump’s freeze on funding for the World Health Organization as  a selfish response to the global pandemic,

“We see yesterday’s announcement by Washington on freezing funding of the WHO as most concerning. It is a sign of the very selfish approach of the US authorities to what is happening in the world due to the pandemic,” deputy foreign minister Sergei Ryabkov told state news agency TASS.

AFP