(Paris) The United States, whose Member States of UNESCO had very largely voted at the end of June to return to this UN organization, are now fully part of it, after having satisfied final procedures, announced Tuesday the institution based in Paris.
“The return of the United States to UNESCO is effective: they have officially become a member state of our Organization again”, welcomed in a press release the director general of the organization, Audrey Azoulay, hailing a “victory”. for UNESCO.
At the end of June, some “90% of (countries) present and voting”, according to UNESCO, had already declared themselves in favor of American rejoining the United Nations organization for education, culture and science, which Washington left under Donald Trump.
But the United States had yet to “formally accept UNESCO’s Constitution”, which it did on Monday, according to a UN diplomat. The United Kingdom, depositary of this document, was then to register this decision, which “has just been done”, according to the press release received on Tuesday by AFP, entitled “The United States becomes the 194e Member State of UNESCO”.
On Sunday, Audrey Azoulay spoke by telephone with US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken, who had promised her “reinforced support” for UNESCO’s actions for “education in Africa, the protection of heritage in Ukraine, the memory of the Holocaust and the freedom of the press”, according to the UN organization.
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.
His return is part of 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.
Only ten countries opposed the American return at the end of June, including Iran, Syria, China, North Korea and especially Russia, which had deliberately considerably slowed down the debates, failing to be able to reverse their outcome.
The United States had already left UNESCO in 1984, under Ronald Reagan, citing the supposed uselessness and budgetary overflows of the organization which it then rejoined in October 2003.
Their return is a relief for the organization, whose American contributions represented 22% of the budget. Washington has pledged to fully repay its arrears, which amount to $619 million, more than UNESCO’s annual budget, estimated at $534 million.