Germany will lobby Trump to drop planned exit from WHO, minister says

GENEVA/BERLIN — Berlin will try to talk US President Donald Trump out of his decision to withdraw the United States from the World Health Organization, Germany's health minister said on Tuesday.

The UN agency also said that it hoped that its top donor country would change its mind and looked forward to a constructive dialogue with Trump's team.

"The new US president's announcement to withdraw from the World Health Organization (WHO) is a serious blow to the international fight against global health crises," Karl Lauterbach said.

"We will try to persuade Donald Trump to reconsider this decision," he added.

Germany is the second largest national donor to the WHO, contributing around 3% of the agency's funding.

Trump announced the withdrawal on Monday, alleging that the global health agency had mishandled the COVID-19 pandemic and other international health crises.

In the UN agency's first reaction to the move, WHO spokesperson Tarik Jašarevi? told reporters in Geneva: "We hope that United States will reconsider, and we really hope that there will be constructive dialogue for the benefit of everyone, for Americans but also for people around the world." — Reuters