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Washington, May 30 (IANS): While addressing the breifing in the White House Rose Garden, US President Donald Trump said the US will be terminating relationship with the WOrld Health Organisation (WHO) right away.
In his today's briefing, he also attacked China on several issues like origin of the coronavirus, recent development in Hong Kong, border disputes in the South China Sea and human rights abuses. He also announced measures aimed at punishing China, the BBC reported.
We will be today terminating our relationship with the World Health Organisation and directing those funds" to other global public health charities, Trump said.
"The world is now suffering as a result of the malfeasance of the Chinese government," he says, adding that China "instigated a global pandemic that has cost over 100,000 American lives".
China, he said, "pressured the World Health Organisation to mislead the world" about the virus.
"Countless lives have been taken and profound economic hardship has been inflicted all around the globe," he adds.
Trump's criticism of the WHO started last month when he threatened to permanently withdraw US funding if the body did not "commit to major substantive improvements in the next 30 days".
"It is clear the repeated missteps by you and your organization in responding to the pandemic have been extremely costly for the world," Trump wrote in a letter to the WHO director-general on May 18.
"The only way forward for the World Health Organisation is if it can actually demonstrate independence from China."
In today's White House speech, Trump said "China has total control over the World Health Organization", despite paying the organisation a fraction of what the US does.
China has accused the US of being responsible for the spread of the virus on its own soil, attributing the outbreak to American "politicians who lie".