Argentina to withdraw from World Health Organisation, following behind Donald Trump

Argentina's President Javier Milei speaks at an event in Maryland in February 2024. Photo / Tom Brenner for The Washington Post

Argentina will withdraw from the World Health Organisation, a spokesman for President Javier Milei said, just weeks after his ally, US President Donald Trump, announced he would again pull out of the global health alliance.

Milei instructed his Foreign Minister to leave the alliance due to “profound differences regarding health management, especially during the pandemic” and “a lack of independence from the political influence of some states”, presidential spokesman Manuel Adorni said in a news conference on Wednesday.

“Argentines are not going to allow an international organisation to intervene in our sovereignty, much less in our health,” Adorni said.

The move by South America’s second-largest economy follows a Trump executive order that terminates the United States’ commitment to the organisation. Trump has accused the WHO of fuelling the coronavirus pandemic that helped end his first presidency, and inaccurately charged that it helped cover up the origins and spread of the virus.

The United States is responsible for nearly 20% of the WHO’s funding. Public health experts warn that Trump’s departure could cripple the organisation’s operations at a time when member nations are battling several dangerous outbreaks around the world and trying to stop the return of vaccine-preventable childhood diseases, such as measles.

They also fear it could leave an opening for China to assume greater control over the agency that helps coordinate the response to international health crises, the Washington Post has reported.

The WHO currently lists 194 member states on its website, including the US and Argentina.

Argentina does not receive WHO funding for its health management, Adorni said Wednesday, so the decision will not mean “a loss of funds for the country, nor does it affect the quality of services”.

However, he said it will allow the Government greater flexibility to implement policies aligned with the “interests of Argentina”.

Milei, a libertarian economist whom Trump has called his “favourite president”, is one of Trump’s most important allies in Latin America. Milei attended Trump’s inauguration and has often expressed his admiration for the US President. Like Trump, he was a political outsider who garnered fame on television with brash and outlandish antics, promising on the campaign trail that he would tackle inflation, reduce federal spending and boost the economy.

After taking office in late 2023 on a promise to take a chainsaw to government, Milei has slashed regulations, government jobs and several entire agencies. On Wednesday, he also mirrored a recent Trump executive order by signing a decree banning gender-affirming care for people under age 18, working against a 2012 gender identity law that allowed it with the consent of a parent or guardian.

In a statement Wednesday, Argentina’s presidential office said gender ideology has been “taken to the extreme” and specifically pointed to the US and other countries as recent examples of leaders walking back access to such care for minors.