New York, 8 January 2026 – The United Nations will continue to implement mandates given by its member states regardless of a decision by the White House to withdraw from 66 international organizations, including 31 UN agencies and entities, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has declared.
US President Donald Trump signed a presidential memorandum on January 7 that directed US executive departments and agencies to take immediate steps to withdraw from scores of international organizations, conventions and treaties that his administration considered contrary to US interests.
The Trump administration has already withdrawn the US from important UN agencies and conventions, including the Paris Agreement on climate change, World Health Organization, the UN Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization and the Human Rights Organization.
UN spokesman Stéphane Dujarric said in a statement that Guterres “regrets” the announcement made by the White House.
“The Secretary-General regrets the announcement by the White House regarding the United States’ decision to withdraw from a number of United Nations entities,” the statement said. “As we have consistently underscored, assessed contributions to the United Nations regular budget and peacekeeping budget, as approved by the General Assembly, are a legal obligation under the UN Charter for all Member States, including the United States.”
“All United Nations entities will go on with the implementation of their mandates as given by Member States. The United Nations has a responsibility to deliver for those who depend on us. We will continue to carry out our mandates with determination.”
UN News said the 31 agencies and entities Trump ordered to withdraw from include the UN Population Fund, which supports maternal and child health, and combatting sexual and gender-based violence; the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change, which fosters global cooperation against climate change; the UN Democracy Fund, which funds and mentors civil society projects for democracy; and other offices of the UN Secretariat based in New York and elsewhere, such as those dealing with children in armed conflict and ending sexual violence as a weapon of war.
UN News said the list also includes four of the five UN regional commissions (Asia-Pacific, Western Asia, Africa, and Latin America and the Caribbean), which are key platforms for multilateral cooperation. For UN entities, “withdrawal means ceasing participation in or funding to those entities to the extent permitted by law,” the memorandum states.
Simon Stiell, the Executive Director of the UNFCCC, said the US withdrawal from the climate change agency constitutes a a step back from global climate cooperation, UN News reported.
“The United States was instrumental in creating the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change and the Paris Agreement, because they are both entirely in its national interests,” Stiell said in a separate statement on January 8.
“While all other nations are stepping forward together, this latest step back from global leadership, climate cooperation and science can only harm the US economy, jobs and living standards, as wildfires, floods, mega-storms and droughts get rapidly worse. It is a colossal own goal which will leave the US less secure and less prosperous.”
Stiell said UNFCCC would keep working tirelessly, adding, “the doors remain open for the US to reenter in the future, as it has in the past with the Paris Agreement.”
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