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The United States has announced its intention to withdraw from UNESCO, the UN's culture and education agency. The US cited UNESCO's support for what it termed "woke, divisive cultural and social causes" as the justification for the move. UNESCO Director-General Audrey Azoulay responded to the announcement by calling the decision "regrettable" but "anticipated".
The withdrawal marks another instance of the Trump administration distancing the US from international bodies, following previous departures from the World Health Organization and the Paris Climate Agreement, as well as significant cuts in funding for foreign relief efforts.
The Paris-based UN agency was set up in November 1945 - shortly after World War Two - to promote peace and security through global co-operation in education, arts, sciences and culture.
Unesco has 194 member states around the world, and is best known for listing world heritage sites. The US' decision will take effect from December 2026.
The state department said Unesco's "globalist, ideological agenda for international development" was "at odds with our America First foreign policy".
It also described the inclusion of the Palestinians in Unesco in 2011, as "highly problematic, contrary to US policy, and contributed to the proliferation of anti-Israel rhetoric within the organization".
Those claims "contradict the reality of Unesco's efforts, particularly in the field of Holocaust education and the fight against antisemitism," the organisation's head Audrey Azoulay said.
"This decision contradicts the fundamental principles of multilateralism, and may affect first and foremost our many partners in the United States of America— communities seeking site inscription on the World Heritage List, Creative City status, and University Chairs," she added.
The Unesco head said the agency had been preparing for Washington's move, diversifying its sources of funding. Currently, she said, Unesco was getting about 8% of its budget from the US.
In 2017, during his first presidency, Trump pulled the US out of Unesco but the decision was later reversed under Joe Biden's administration.
