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Britain plans to withhold cash from the World Health Organization until the UN body finds out where the coronavirus is coming from, as the WHO is accused of being too soft on China as Boris Johnson plans a 30-year increase in funding. %.
- Boris Johnson Announces 30 Percent Increase In UK Support For WHO
- It is understood that funding will be conditional on cracking down on China.
- US President Donald Trump has also said he will withdraw funds from the WHO.
Britain will withhold part of its contribution to the World Health Organization until the international body gets to the bottom of the origins of the coronavirus in China.
The Prime Minister will today announce a 30 per cent increase in his support for WHO over the next four years, at a cost of £ 340 million and making the UK one of the world’s largest donors.
However, it is understood that part of the funding earmarked for the previous period will be conditional on cracking down on China and it is understood that the UK has required the agency to determine where the virus is coming from.
The WHO has been criticized for being too soft on China and US President Donald Trump has said he will withdraw funding over the claims.
Prime Minister Boris Johnson (pictured in his Uxbridge constituency on Friday) will announce that Britain will withhold part of its contribution to the World Health Organization until the international body gets to the bottom of the origins of the coronavirus in China.
The WHO has been criticized for being too soft on China and US President Donald Trump has said he will withdraw funding over the claims. In the picture: WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus shakes hands with Chinese President Xi Jinping before a meeting at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing.
The move comes as Boris Johnson warns today that the world must heal the ‘nasty gaps’ caused by the coronavirus while calling on countries to unite.
In his virtual address to the UN General Assembly, he will call on world leaders to overcome the divisions caused by the virus.
His comments can be taken as a blow to countries like China, which has been accused of withholding information about the virus, but also to Russia, which the UK has accused of launching cyberattacks to steal the vaccine, as well as the US. Comments on WHO funding.
It will also establish a five-point plan, developed in consultation with the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, to prevent future pandemics, including ensuring that free trade continues internationally.
Boris Johnson will announce a 30 per cent increase in his support for WHO over the next four years, at a cost of £ 340 million and making the UK one of the world’s largest donors. Pictured: WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus speaks during Peace One Day on Monday
Johnson will say: ‘After nine months of fighting Covid, the very notion of the international community seems in tatters.
‘We know that we cannot continue in this way. Unless we unite and turn our fire against our common enemy, we know that everyone will lose.
“Now is the time … for humanity to cross borders and repair these nasty fissures.”
The Prime Minister will also announce a new investment in COVAX, the international Covid-19 vaccine procurement group, which includes £ 500 million in aid funding to help 92 of the world’s poorest countries access a vaccine.