Government stresses need to support, not weaken, WHO in Pandemic
After the US decision to suspend its contributions to WHO, Portugal's Ministry of Foreign Affairs said that the fight against the Pandemic requires countries to support the organization.
Portugal on Wednesday stressed that the fight against the Pandemic caused by the new coronavirus requires countries to support, not weaken, the World Health Organization, after the US decision to suspend its contributions to the United Nations institution.
“The fight against the #COVID19 Pandemic requires everyone’s efforts and the strengthening of multilateral organisations,” reads a message posted on the official Twitter account of Portugal’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs. “It is not the time to weaken the World Health Organisation but to support it.”
The US president, Donald Trump, on Tuesday announced that he was suspending the country’s contribution to the WHO, citing alleged “mismanagement” on the part of the organisation of the response to the Pandemic caused by the new coronavirus and saying an inquiry was underway.
Trump, who was speaking to journalists at the White House, said that the US contributes between $400 million (€364 million) and $500 million a year to the WHO, contrasting that with the approximately $40 million or “even less” that he said China contributes.
The US decision drew immediate criticised by the UN secretary-general, António Guterres, a former prime minister of Portugal, who in statement said that this “is not the time to reduce funding for the operations” of the WHO “or any other humanitarian institution fighting the virus” SARS-CoV-2.
“My conviction is that the World Health Organization must be supported because it is absolutely essential to the world’s efforts to win the war against covid-19”, Guterres stressed.
The European Union on Wednesday also reacted to the US decision, saying that it “deeply” regretted it and considering that “there is no reason to justify” the attitude, especially in the current context of the Covid-19 Pandemic.
In a message posted on his official Twitter account, the EU’s High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, Josep Borrell, echoed that reaction, saying that there was “no reason justifying this move at a moment when their efforts are needed more than ever to help contain & mitigate the coronavirus Pandemic.
“Only by joining forces we can overcome this crisis that knows no borders,” he adds.
China and Germany have also come out and criticised Donald Trump’s decision.
The new coronavirus, which first appeared in China in December, has killed more than 124,000 people and infected almost two million people in 193 countries and territories.
The US currently has the highest death toll, at 25,757, with more than 600,000 cases of infection.
