World / US will consider rejoining WHO if it ends corruption, reliance on China: White House

Washington: Days after terminating all relations with the World Health Organisation (WHO), the United States on Sunday said that it will ‘consider’ rejoining the global health front if it “ends the corruption and ends the reliance on China”.

On Friday last week, President Donald Trump suspended funding to the WHO permanently after accusing it of sharing misinformation about the coronavirus outbreak that originated in Wuhan city, China.

“The WHO needs to reform. What the president said, if the WHO reforms and ends the corruption and ends the reliance on China, the US will very seriously consider coming back,” US National Security Advisor Robert O’Brien told reporters.

President Trump had said that the money the US invested to fund WHO, which is about $400 million, he will redirect it to other international public health bodies.

Trump had confidently claimed that the deadly virus that has affected people across the globe had originated in a Chinese lab in Wuhan city. China had, however, denied the allegations.

On April 15, President Donald Trump had frozen the US funding to WHO blaming it for severely mismanaging and covering up the spread of the coronavirus. He had threatened to withdraw it permanently if the UN agency did not follow through their recommendations.