Sharjah24 - AFP: The United States plans to rejoin UNESCO from July this year, ending a lengthy dispute that saw Washington end its membership in 2018, the UN cultural agency announced on Monday.
"It is a strong act of confidence in UNESCO and in multilateralism," said its Director General Audrey Azoulay when she informed representatives of the body's member states in Paris of Washington's decision to rejoin.
The United States, a founding member of UNESCO, was a major contributor to UNESCO's budget until 2011, when the body admitted Palestine as a member state.
That triggered an end to the contributions under US law.
Then president Donald Trump went further by announcing in 2017 that the United States was withdrawing from UNESCO alongside Israel, accusing the body of bias against the Jewish state.
Its pullout took effect in 2018.
Azoulay, a former French culture minister who has headed UNESCO since 2017, has made it a priority of her mandate to bring the United States back.
"UNESCO is doing well, but it will be even better when the US returns," she said Monday.
"It's not hard to imagine all the things both the US government and civil society can bring to the international community in education, culture, and science," she added.
In a letter to Azoulay seen by AFP, Richard Verma, the US deputy secretary of state for management and resources, said Washington was "grateful" to Azoulay for progress on "significant issues", including "decreasing focus on politicised debate".
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