The United States officially joined UNESCO on Friday, which they had left under the presidency of Donald Trump, after a plebiscite of the member states of this UN organization based in Paris, and despite the opposition of Russia and China. .
Some 132 states voted for this American return, 15 abstained and ten opposed it.
“We are really happy with this support. […] It is so important for us to be part of this multilateral organization”, that “we are honored to integrate again”, commented the ambassador of the United States in France, Denise Bauer, to Agence France-Presse.
“It’s a great day, a historic moment”, greeted the press the director general of UNESCO Audray Azoulay, noting an “extremely clear response, favorable to more than 90% of the voting and present States”.
Many of them expressed their satisfaction after the vote. “All inside [de l’UNESCO], it’s much better, “reacted an Argentine diplomat. “This return strengthens multilateralism” and the finances of the organization, welcomed a Spanish diplomat. “We say ‘akwaba’, or ‘welcome’ to the United States,” said an Ivorian diplomat.
Several countries such as Iran, Syria, China, North Korea and especially Russia, however, expressed their opposition in principle, when the extraordinary general conference of UNESCO organized over two days seemed to be won over to the American return.
The Russian delegation in particular multiplied the speeches on procedural points on Thursday and the draft amendments on Friday in order to slow down the debates.
“We would be ready to welcome Washington’s desire” to join UNESCO, but “we think that they are trying to take us to a parallel world, which really goes beyond all the absurd descriptions of Lewis Carroll’s books”, thundered a Russian diplomat on Friday.
“In this distorted space, those who defend democracy and the rule of law are beginning to lead us towards a violation of these rules and to arrogate privileged rights”, he continued, believing that the United States must pay their arrears to UNESCO in full before being able to join it, when Washington offers to do so gradually.
“The way in which the United States requested this return is not acceptable” and is akin to “a violation of the spirit of the Constitution” of this institution, for his part castigated an Iranian diplomat.
Washington had left UNESCO in October 2017 denouncing the “persistent anti-Israeli bias” of this institution. This withdrawal, accompanied by that of Israel, had been effective since December 2018.
Chinese vote against
Since 2011, and the admission of Palestine to UNESCO, the United States, then led by Barack Obama, had stopped all funding for the UN organization, a huge setback for it, then that US contributions accounted for 22% of its budget.
Washington proposed at the beginning of June, in a letter to Audrey Azoulay, “a plan” for their return to the UN organization for education, culture and science, “whose mission has only increased in importance”.
A decision falling within a general context of growing rivalry with China, while Beijing wishes to transform the international multilateral order put in place after the Second World War, of which UNESCO is an emanation.
In March, the head of American diplomacy, Antony Blinken, had thus estimated that the American absence allowed China to weigh more than the United States on the rules of artificial intelligence (AI), when UNESCO produces a recommendation on AI ethics as early as 2021.
“I really believe that we should come back to UNESCO, not to give UNESCO a gift, but because the things that happen at UNESCO matter,” he said.
Beijing, which had initially assured not to oppose the return of the United States, and whose relations with Washington are experiencing a slight improvement, finally voted against at UNESCO.
The American debt with this UN organization dedicated to culture, science and education, contracted between 2011 and 2018, today reaches 619 million dollars, more than the annual budget of UNESCO, evaluated at 534 millions of dollars.
The United States said it had asked the US Congress to disburse $150 million for fiscal year 2024, with an equivalent amount to be disbursed in subsequent years “until the arrears to UNESCO are cleared”.
They had already left UNESCO in 1984, under Ronald Reagan, citing the supposed uselessness and budgetary overflows of the organization which they then rejoined in October 2003.
“The United States has already withdrawn twice from the organization. We don’t know how many more times we’ll have to ‘welcome’ them,” quipped a North Korean diplomat, opposed to the use of this terminology in the UN resolution.