WHO Wants To Work Closely With Joe Biden After Trump's Controversial Move

Joe Biden and Kamala Harris (Instagram joebiden)

GENEVA - The World Health Organization (WHO) looks forward to the opportunity to work closely with the administration of President-elect of the United States Joe Biden.

WHO welcomes efforts to strengthen the Geneva-based body through reforms. WHO Director General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus urged the international community to recapture a common goal

"In that spirit, we congratulate President-elect Joe Biden and Vice President-elect Kamala Harris and we look forward to working very closely with this administration," he said.

"We need to restructure leadership, build mutual trust and accountability to end the pandemic and tackle the fundamental inequalities that are at the root of so many of the world's problems," he added.

WHO funding, Tedros said, had to become more flexible and predictable to end the "major mismatch" between expectations and available resources. He cited reform efforts by France, Germany and the European Union.

"We still have a lot of work to do, but we are confident that we are on the right track," Tedros told health ministers during the annual meeting of WHO, the 194-member organization.

US President Donald Trump has frozen US funding for the WHO and initiated a process that will see the United States withdraw from the agency in July.

Trump's move drew criticism from international circles amid the COVID-19 crisis. Trump has accused the WHO of being "China-centric" in its handling of the pandemic, an accusation Tedros has repeatedly denied.

Joe Biden on Monday will form a national task force to deal with the coronavirus. During the US presidential campaign, Biden said that, on his first day in office, he would overturn Trump's decision to withdraw the US from the WHO.