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by Tom Ozimek
Reporter
July 22, 2025
from
TheEpochTimes Website
Report also HERE
Similar version in
spanish
UNESCO headquarters in Paris on
July 22, 2025.
Thomas
Padilla/AP Photo
The
UNESCO exit
comes amid
criticism of the agency's ties
to the
Chinese Communist Party
and
longstanding anti-Israel concerns.
The United States will withdraw from the U.N. Educational,
Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO)
by the end of 2026, the State Department confirmed on July 22,
citing ideological differences and what it described as an
anti-Israel bias and "globalist" agenda out of step with U.S.
foreign policy.
"Continued involvement in UNESCO is not in
the national interest of the United States," State Department
spokesperson Tammy Bruce said in a
statement.
She said the agency advances "divisive social and
cultural causes" and prioritizes the United Nations' Sustainable
Development Goals - an agenda she called "globalist" and at odds
with the Trump administration's America First foreign
policy.
The United States delivered a formal notice of
its withdrawal to UNESCO Director-General Audrey Azoulay on
July 22, according to Bruce.
The move, carried out under Article II(6) of the
organization's constitution, is set to take effect on Dec. 31, 2026.
Until that date, the United States will continue to participate as a
full member.
This marks the third time the United States has withdrawn
from the Paris-based agency, and the second time under President
Donald Trump.
The United States last withdrew from UNESCO in
2017 during Trump's first term, citing anti-Israel bias. It rejoined
in 2023 under President
Joe Biden, who argued the move
was necessary to counter China's growing influence in the
organization.
However, a 2023
report from Washington-based
Uyghur Human Rights Project found that UNESCO was "complicit" in
the Chinese regime's atrocities against Uyghurs and their culture by
remaining silent and even providing cover for the Chinese
Communist Party (CCP).
White House deputy spokesperson Anna Kelly said that the
decision to withdraw from UNESCO reflects Trump's broader commitment
to reevaluating international memberships through the lens of U.S.
national interests.
"President Trump has decided to withdraw the
United States from UNESCO - which supports woke,
divisive cultural and social causes," Kelly stated in a post
on X on July 22.
"The President will always put America First.
Our membership in all international
organizations must align with our national interests."
In her statement, Bruce reiterated U.S.
opposition to UNESCO's 2011 decision to admit,
"Palestine" as a member state, calling it
"highly problematic" and a contributor to "the proliferation of
anti-Israel rhetoric within the organization."
The Reagan administration first pulled the
United States out of UNESCO in 1984 over concerns about
mismanagement and pro-Soviet bias.
The United States rejoined in 2003 under the
Bush administration, only to
suspend funding in 2011 following the "Palestine" admission.
The Biden administration had requested $150 million in the
2024 federal budget to resume dues payment and begin repaying more
than $600 million in arrears.
U.S. contributions once accounted for 22 percent
of UNESCO's operating budget.
Alex Newman, investigative journalist and Epoch Times
contributor,
reported in 2020 that multiple
senior U.S. officials and analysts have expressed grave concerns
about what they described as a CCP "takeover" of
the United Nations and its
agencies, including UNESCO.
"I don't think UNESCO is fixable,"
...Kevin Moley, former U.S. assistant
secretary of state for international organization affairs, told The
Epoch Times at the time.
Moley said that the agency's policymaking had,
"largely been taken over by the CCP and its
allies," while describing the CCP takeover of the U.N. as "the
greatest existential threat to our republic since its founding."
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