European Union backs WHO after Trump's new threat over funding

The European Union (EU) has come out in support of the World Health Organization (WHO) after US President Donald Trump threatened to permanently suspend funding to the agency.

The European Union (EU) has come out in support of the World Health Orgzation (WHO) after US President Donald Trump threatened to permanently suspend funding to the agency.

"The European Union backs the WHO in its efforts to contain and mitigate the COVID-19 outbreak and has already provided additional funding to support these efforts," a spokesperson for the European Commission Virginie Battu-Henriksson was quoted as saying by CNN on Tuesday.

This comes after Trump told WHO head Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus on Monday that the US will completely stop funding the international agency unless it commits to major improvements within the next 30 days.

On Tuesday, the EU spokesperson stressed that "global cooperation and solidarity through multilateral efforts" was "the only effective and viable option to win" the fight against the novel coronavirus.

"This is the time for solidarity, it is not the time for finger-pointing or undermining multilateral cooperation, especially today as we are awaiting for the approval ... of a resolution which has been presented by the European Union and its member states at the World Health Assembly," Battu-Henriksson added.

In April, the US President suspended the funding for the WHO over its "China-centric" policies.

Trump had also accused the global health body of ignoring credible reports on the spread of the virus and making incorrect and misleading claims about the deadly contagion under pressure from Beijing.

( With inputs from ANI )