CCTV News App News: US President Trump signed an executive order on January 20, 2025, announcing the US withdrawal from the World Health Organization. The United Nations received this notification on January 22 of the same year. According to the Constitution of the World Health Organization, member states can officially withdraw after submitting a withdrawal application for one year. January 22nd of this year marks the official one-year deadline for the United States to submit its application to withdraw from the World Health Organization to the United Nations. According to the WHO Constitution, this means that the United States has officially withdrawn from the WHO in terms of procedures.
CCTV reporter Xu Tao: On January 22nd local time, the United States has submitted a notice to the United Nations to withdraw from the World Health Organization for one year, meeting the procedural conditions required for formal withdrawal. But in reality, this "withdrawal" action is facing dual questioning from multilateral rules and international public opinion. WHO spokesperson Lindmayer recently made it clear that the United States has the right to withdraw, but the prerequisite is to settle all outstanding membership fees. At present, the United States has not paid the outstanding payments for 2024 and 2025, totaling approximately $260 million over the two years. This issue has been officially included in the agenda of the upcoming WHO Executive Committee meeting. That is to say, the United States can choose to leave, but the outstanding bills will not be automatically invalidated with political decisions. The operating rules of multilateral mechanisms will not be invalidated by a major country announcing its withdrawal from the group.
