The United States returns to UNESCO and will progressively pay the 619 million it owes

The United States flag has been raised again this Tuesday at the headquarters of the United Nations Scientific and Cultural Organization (Unesco), to which it has returned after its departure in 2018. The re-entry was made official in a symbolic ceremony attended by the first lady of the United States, Jill Biden, who recalled that the “greatest challenges of our time cannot be solved from isolation.”

“President Biden is aware that if we want to create a better world, America cannot do it alone, we must help lead the way.. That is why we are so proud to be part of UNESCO again,” the American first lady said at the agency's headquarters in Paris.

Surrounded, among others, by the director general of Unesco, Audrey Azoulay, and by her French counterpart, Brigitte Macron, whom she had visited in the morning at El Élysée, Jill Biden represented her country while the flag of bars and stars rose again along with those of the other 192 members of Unesco, with the Eiffel Tower in the background.

The United States regained its membership on July 10, but this symbolic moment was the occasion to celebrate the reintegration of a state that ranks among its founders and largest contributors.

The United States left in 2018 for the second time in history – the first was in 1984, during the term of Ronald Reagan – with Donald Trump in the White House, who accused UNESCO of repeatedly adopting anti-Israeli positions.

The raising of the flag became a plea in favor of multilateralism. “In this time of disunity, of division, of existential threat to humanity, we reaffirm our union today and here,” stressed the Director General of UNESCO.

Azoulay assured that this is an exceptional and “happy” moment that “reinforces the universality” of the organization and its “legitimacy”. “This return”, he stressed, “indicates that we can and must unite”, as well as being a message of “hope” for multilateralism and for the next generations.

He thanked President Biden for his “political will”, which was the engine of this return, and also the “lucidity” of the US parliamentarians from both sides of the political arc, who found an agreement so that US re-entry is accompanied by the progressive payment of a $619 million debt that Washington had accumulated since 2011.

BIG CHALLENGES

“Injustice and corruption, poverty and hunger, climate catastrophes and diseases are not contained by borders. Some of the greatest challenges of our time cannot be solved in isolation,” the first lady said.

“Of course,” he added, “we have to take care of our citizens. But we are part of a global community.”. Biden stressed his country's interest in the goals pursued by Unesco such as the protection of heritage, the culture of peace, freedom of the press and the ethical use of new technologies.

As a teacher, she has emphasized the importance of education to achieve a better future.. Jill Biden began her political agenda in France this Tuesday with a visit to Brigitte Macron at the Elysée and the ceremony at Unesco. His trip to France will continue this Wednesday with a trip to the French regions of Normandy and Brittany (northwest), where he will visit emblematic places related to his country's participation in World War II.