The United States has formally requested to rejoin UNESCO, an eye towards China

June 12, 2023

The United States, under the leadership of President Joe Biden, has officially requested to rejoin UNESCO, which left under Donald Trump, a decision aimed in particular at countering the growing influence of China in the international multilateral order.

“I wish to inform you, on behalf of the State Department, that the United States has the honor to propose a plan for its return to Unesco,” wrote Richard Verma, an assistant to the secretary of state, in a letter to the director general of the organization Audrey Azoulay, seen by AFP.

“If Unesco is doing well, it will be even better with the return of the United States”, launched Ms. Azoulay during a meeting with member countries in Paris, headquarters of the UN institution. “It’s a great day for UNESCO, for multilateralism.”

The acceptance of the American return can only be done after a majority vote of the other States, expected in July.

In unison with the Japanese ambassador to UNESCO, who welcomed a “historic development”, more than 40 countries supported the holding of a rapid vote on the subject and showed themselves in favor of American reintegration.

China, via its ambassador to Unesco Yang Jin, has indicated that it will not oppose it. “China is ready to work with all member states, including the United States,” he said, despite the stormy relations between Beijing and Washington.

This American decision is part of the general context of the growing rivalry between the two countries and while China wishes to transform the international multilateral order put in place after the Second World War, of which UNESCO is an emanation.

Under the presidency of Donald Trump, the United States announced in October 2017 to leave Unesco, of which they had denounced in particular the “persistent anti-Israeli bias”. This withdrawal, accompanied by that of Israel, had been effective since December 2018.

In March, Secretary of State Anthony Blinken had however estimated that the American absence allowed China to weigh more than the United States on the rules of artificial intelligence (AI), when Unesco produced a recommendation on the ethics of AI from 2021.

“I really believe that we should come back to Unesco, not to give Unesco a gift, but because the things that happen at Unesco matter,” he said.

Unesco “creates important standards. When you are absent from this, you of course leave room for others”, noted Audrey Azoulay on Monday in a short interview with the press.

Since 2011, and the admission of Palestine to UNESCO, the United States, then led by Barack Obama, had stopped all funding for the UN organization for culture, education and science, a huge a halt for it, while American contributions represented 22% of its budget.

The American debt to Unesco, contracted between 2011 and 2018, is today 619 million dollars, more than the annual budget of Unesco, estimated at 534 million dollars.

“The new American money will do a lot of good for Unesco”, estimated on condition of anonymity a diplomat from this agency, for whom the American president “and the First lady” were “involved” in the request. of Washington’s reintegration.

“The United States needs to renew a form of dialogue. (…) The return of the Americans to Unesco crystallizes a lot of plate tectonics that are moving everywhere”, observes Annick Cizel, lecturer at the university Paris III.

Because Unesco is a “geopolitical crossroads” where Washington can talk, for example, with China on environmental issues, but also with the Middle East, “which is increasingly eluding the Americans”, lists this specialist in foreign policy of the United States.

Unesco is also “scientific truth in the face of disinformation from Truth social”, Donald Trump’s social network, or in the face of fake news propagated by “the Sino-Russian-Iranian-North Korean axis”, she raises.

The United States said it had asked the US Congress to disburse $150 million for the 2024 fiscal year, an equivalent amount to be disbursed in the following years “until our arrears are resolved”, according to the letter from Richard Verma.

The United States had already left UNESCO in 1984, under Ronald Reagan, citing the supposed uselessness and budgetary overflows of this organization which they then reintegrated in October 2003.

Russia and Iran, other members of Unesco with which Washington has complex relations, did not speak on Monday. The scenario of a rejection of the American candidacy during the July vote is however considered by Unesco as unlikely.