US' reentry of UNESCO narrow-minded

Photo taken on Oct 12, 2017 shows the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization headquarters in Paris, France. [Photo/Xinhua]

This is an editorial from China Daily.

A vote at a special session of the General Assembly of the United Nations Educational Scientific and Cultural Organization on Friday endorsed a resolution giving a green light to the return of the United States to the UN body. The resolution allows the US to resume its UNESCO membership on July 31, when it will have the right to vote and the qualification to be elected to the Executive Board at the end of this year.

The US stopped financing UNESCO after it voted to include Palestine as a member in 2011, and withdrew from it in 2018, citing an anti-Israel "bias" and management issues. Although, in a letter sent to UNESCO Director-General Audrey Azoulay in June indicating the US' wish to rejoin the UN body, the US welcomed the way in which UNESCO had addressed in recent years emerging challenges, modernized its management, and reduced political tensions, it is no secret that what has pushed the country back to UNESCO is the Joe Biden administration's resolve to turn it into a new arena for the US' "competition" with China.

The Biden administration has requested $150 million for the 2024 budget to go toward UNESCO dues and arrears. The plan foresees similar requests for the ensuing years until the full debt of $619 million that has occurred since 2011 is paid off.

"I very much believe we should be back in UNESCO — again, not as a gift to UNESCO, but because things that are happening at UNESCO actually matter," US Secretary of State Antony Blinken told a Senate committee when he presented the budget in March. He added that the US absence from UNESCO was letting China write rules on artificial intelligence, referring to the Ethics of Artificial Intelligence adopted by the agency as a framework file guiding the development of the AI industry and technology.

Blinken's remarks should also serve to remind Azoulay of the true motivation for the US' bid for readmission. She valued the US' "concrete financing plan" and acclaimed the US' return as "a strong act of confidence in UNESCO and in multilateralism" in June after receiving the letter from the US.

Instead of promoting multilateralism, it is crystal clear that Washington intends to weaponize UNESCO, as it does to the International Atomic Energy Agency and the UN Human Rights Council, to defend its unilateralism and hegemony.

This will be the second time the US has rejoined UNESCO after having a hissy fit and walking out. It withdrew from it in 1984 alleging the agency was mismanaged, corrupt and used to advance Soviet interests, and rejoined it in 2003, saying the organization had "reformed". The casualness with which Washington blasts and praises UNESCO and decides on whether to pay its dues or not clearly demonstrates Washington's disrespect for the agency as well as the other members of it.

All UNESCO members should respect and safeguard social diversity, and strive to promote mutual understanding and cooperation.

The US should prove to the world that it has repented its past irresponsible way of dealing with UNESCO-related issues. If it continues to divide the agency according to values and ideologies for its own narrow ends, and transform the organization from a platform for cooperation and mutual assistance to a new arena for geopolitical games, its third withdrawal from it will only be a matter of time, bringing disgrace on its own head again and the anger of the other members.