Germany Seeks to Change Trump's WHO Withdrawal Decision
GENEVA/BERLIN (Reuters) - Berlin will try to talk U.S. President Donald Trump out of his decision to withdraw the United States from the World Health Organisation, Germany's health minister said on Tuesday.
The U.N. agency also said that it hoped that its top donor country would change its mind and looked forward to a constructive dialogue with Trump's team.
"The new U.S. president's announcement to withdraw from the World Health Organisation (WHO) is a serious blow to the international fight against global health crises," Karl Lauterbach said.
"We will try to persuade Donald Trump to reconsider this decision," he added.
Germany is the second largest national donor to the WHO, contributing around 3% of the agency's funding.
Trump announced the withdrawal on Monday, alleging that the global health agency had mishandled the COVID-19 pandemic and other international health crises.
In the U.N. agency's first reaction to the move, WHO spokesperson Tarik Jašarević told reporters in Geneva: "We hope that United States will reconsider, and we really hope that there will be constructive dialogue for the benefit of everyone, for Americans but also for people around the world." (This story has been refiled to correct the spelling of organization in paragraphs 1 and 2)
(Reporting by Emma Farge and Rachel More; Editing by Friederike Heine)