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(CNN) – The United States has reduced its role on the world stage, has taken steps that are undermining efforts to combat the coronavirus pandemic, and has left the international community without a traditional world leader, according to experts, diplomats and analysts.
The United States, generally at the head of the table helping to coordinate in global crises, has refused to take a seat at virtual international meetings convened by the World Health Organization and the European Union to coordinate work on vaccines that can save lives.
Former world leaders warn that the Trump administration risks alienating allies by politicizing the deadly pandemic with its attempt to punish China and make other nations choose sides.
The administration’s decision to suspend funding for WHO, the world’s best-positioned body to coordinate the global response to the raging pandemic, has horrified global health officials.
On Friday, the United States blocked a vote on a UN Security Council resolution calling for a global ceasefire aimed at collectively helping a planet devastated by the outbreak. The United States did not want any reference to WHO in the text and rejected a compromise version that did not directly mention the organization, instead citing UN “specialized health agencies”, according to two diplomats familiar with the process. .
The United States has similarly blocked expressions of global unity at the G7 and G20 meetings due to anger over China and the WHO.
Unbelief and sadness
And where United States presidents in the past have offered a strong voice, observers from the Asia Pacific to Europe expressed disbelief, amusement, and sadness at briefings by the President of the United States, Donald Trump, about the virus, saying they are deeply damaging to the image of the United States abroad.
U.S. officials backtrack, touting both the funds to fight Covid-19 and the work Trump is doing through the Group of Seven and bilaterally, leading more than 50 calls with world leaders. But experts say financing without full global coordination can slow overall progress.
At a time when nearly 4 million people worldwide have been infected with the virus, diplomats say many countries long for the strong American leadership they have seen in historical moments and in previous epidemics, citing President Barack Obama’s response. to Ebola and President George W. Bush’s work on HIV / AIDS.
“They want the United States to lean more,” said a European diplomat. “We know that they are doing a lot with countries, including developing countries, bilaterally … but many countries long for the decisive effort by the United States that we saw when the Berlin Wall fell. Many countries believe it is one of those crucial moments in history and the United States has always led in those moments. “
Critics say the Trump administration’s focus on the coronavirus has not only hampered the fight against the pandemic, but it has increased uncertainty, eroded respect for the US. USA And there has been growing concern that the international system is no longer functioning effectively.
“The world is seeking global leadership. It is a global problem: it affects literally everyone on the planet. This is a time when superpower leaders in a very constructive way are expected to help coordinate and structure the response.” Robert Yates said. , director of the Global Health Program at Chatham House, a group of British experts. “You would expect the US to have a leadership role in trying to coordinate global efforts. That has been completely flawed.”
Global health officials found that Trump’s decision to cut funding for the WHO amid a pandemic was “absolutely impressive,” Yates added. “It is worse than the lack of coordination, it almost seems destructive.”
A senior State Department official told reporters on Tuesday that the president “has concerns” about the WHO, which Trump has accused of being biased in favor of China. The official repeatedly stressed that the United States “is the world’s largest humanitarian and health donor” and said that the United States “and President Trump are leading the global effort to combat this pandemic,” in part through the US presidency. of the G7.
But the machinery of a U.S.-led international response is not getting started this time, said Gayle Smith, president and CEO of the ONE nonprofit campaign.
In general, he noted, “we have not seen the type of summit, the urgency of the meetings in the UN Security Council, the heads of state who come together to organize, to discover how we manage, for example, supply chains global “.
Missed meetings
“Everyone in the world is looking for the same goods. How do we ensure that the global economy stays where it should be?” asked Smith, a former administrator of the United States Agency for International Development. And while he notes that the G7 and G20 have held virtual meetings, “I would very much like to see the United States go the extra mile to mobilize the world on multiple levels.”
US officials say Trump has called regular virtual meetings with G7 ministers to coordinate assistance to other countries, but the White House skipped international meetings to coordinate the search for a vaccine, leaving experts puzzled. The WHO organized a meeting, while another meeting on Monday from more than 40 countries and various organizations raised $ 8 billion in pledges and pledged that whoever produces an effective vaccine will first share it with the rest of the world.
The absence of the United States was “really, very unfortunate,” Smith said, not only “because the United States has historically been a leader,” but because the United States has a national interest in being part of the group “that is trying to accelerate development. of vaccines. ” and therapeutic, because obviously we are going to need a vaccine here … I think it would be prudent, and in our interest, to participate on the ground floor. “
Stephen Morrison, director of the Center for Global Health Policy at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, said: “It is a very crazy and disturbing thing that [the US] he would go his own way and stay seated. It is the country with the greatest financing capacity, the greatest fundamental interest, the greatest R&D capacity. “
He noted that the Trump administration has begun its own “distortion speed” effort to develop a vaccine, pointing to the complicated web of interests required to develop it, including manufacturing and testing issues. “I don’t know if an individual effort is conceivable,” he said.
When repeatedly asked Tuesday about the United States’ absence from vaccine meetings, the State Department official emphasized how much funding the United States is giving the Covid fight. A day later, the State Department issued a statement highlighting US funding. USA And his work with organizations like the Global Alliance on Vaccines and said that the USA. USA They viewed the vaccine conferences as “complementary to our ongoing efforts.”
He added that “as we move forward in this global fight against Covid-19, we count on our Allies and partners to join the United States in asking the difficult questions that are needed from China, as well as from WHO.”
America’s drive to punish China has disturbed allies, who see it as a White House political move to isolate Trump from blame for America’s unequal response to the pandemic in an election year, and as stressful demand for countries to choose sides.
“I am afraid everything is political,” said a German diplomat who discussed the insistence of Secretary of State Mike Pompeo that intelligence indicates that the virus originated in a Chinese laboratory, although he has provided no evidence. “It is quite obvious that it is part of the campaign.”
‘Stranger than fiction’
A French diplomat bluntly said, “We cannot turn our backs on China. It is a great partner. No one can. We need to maintain an association.”
Former British Prime Minister Theresa May spoke more directly to Allied concerns about the United States’ campaign against China and warned in a Times opinion piece that “it would be a mistake to allow this to become a flaw in international relations. “
The European diplomat said that several countries feel that “at this time, the priority must be to overcome the global pandemic that requires a lot of cooperation … China needs to be part of it and the WHO has to be involved … Anything that can detract from value that effort right now makes people a little nervous. “
The behavior of the President of the United States has also made many international observers a little nervous.
They and other experts say the United States’ sense of a stable force in difficult times is fading, largely due to Trump-televised coronavirus briefings, which Yates called “tremendous shame.” Some observers pointed to Trump’s apparent suggestion to investigate whether people could inject disinfectant to counter Covid, a dangerous idea that left health officials around the world struggling and had some, such as Australia’s chief medical officer, laughing in disbelief at the camera.
Thomas Gomart, director of the Paris-based French Institute for International Relations, said Europe stared in amazement at Trump’s response to the pandemic and called his behavior “weirder than fiction.”
“It provides us with a very entertaining balance of fun and sadness, which is not what is expected of an American president,” said Gomart, an assessment shared by Spanish Javier del Pino, a prominent journalist.
“The way we looked at Trump was a lot of fun at first,” said del Pino. “It’s not funny anymore.”
This story was first published on CNN.com “The allies despair when Trump abandons the leadership role of the United States at a time of global crisis”
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