WHO’s chief legal officer Steve Solomon said it was a bit unclear when exactly the withdrawal would be official.
He explained to reporters that the WHO constitution does not include a withdrawal clause, but that Washington made arrangements in 1948 reserving the right to withdraw, under certain conditions.
One condition was that it would need to give one year’s notice, and the second was that it would need to “meet its financial obligations to the organisation in full for the current fiscal year”, he said.
But currently, “the US for 2024 and 2025 is in arrears on its payments”, he said, without giving figures, adding that the WHO member states would need to consider: “Has the condition been fulfilled?”
At a time when dramatic cuts to international aid budgets have hit health systems worldwide hard, Tedros stressed that “funding is very important for our organisation, for WHO to really deliver”.
But he insisted that when calling for the US to return to the WHO fold, “it’s not about money”.
“What matters most is solidarity, cooperation and for the whole world to prepare itself for any eventualities, to a common enemy like a virus, like Covid,” he insisted.
“The best immunity is solidarity.”