#Pompeo says US will fulfill financial pledges to WHO before withdrawal

Secretary of State Mike Pompeo acknowledged that the US will fulfill its financial obligation to the World Health Organization before it formally exits the United Nations agency next year, according to a report.

“We will work with Congress with respect to the appropriated funds,” Pompeo said Wednesday, according to Fox News. “We’ll get it right.”

“But the president has made very clear we are not going to underwrite an organization that has historically been incompetent and not performed its fundamental function,” he added.

The Trump administration said Tuesday that it had notified the UN that the US is withdrawing from the WHO effective July 6, 2021.

President Trump has blasted the global health agency for siding with China to downplay the extent of the outbreak after the first reports of the disease surfaced in Wuhan, China, in late December.

Chinese President Xi Jinping pressured the director of the World Health Organization in January to hold off on issuing a global warning about the coronavirus outbreak, according to a report in a German newspaper.

The Jan. 21 conversation between Jinping and WHO leader Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus was reported in Der Spiegel, which cited intelligence from Germany’s federal intelligence service, known as the Bundesnachrichtendienst (BND).

The report published over the weekend said Xi urged the WHO chief to “delay a global warning” about the pandemic and hold back information on the human-to-human transmission of the virus.

The BND estimated that China’s action to conceal information resulted in a loss of four to six weeks in the fight against COVID-19.

The WHO denied these allegations.

Before it leaves, the US must provide a year’s notice and pay any funds pledged by the termination date.

Based on records provided by the WHO, the US owes more than $99 million.