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US envoy Waltz touts ‘America first’ policy, budget cuts in Senate swipe at UN
US ambassador to UN joined other Washington envoys hailing US-led cost-cutting, efficiency drive and streamlining of UN’s cumulative ‘bloat’
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Mark Magnierin New York
Washington’s senior envoys to the United Nations took a victory lap in Senate testimony on Wednesday over the US-inspired cuts and efficiency drive at the multilateral agency, even as they slammed its inability to end the conflict in Ukraine, stem the Iran war started by the US and Israel or curb China’s growing clout.
Mike Waltz, US ambassador to the UN, touted the US$570 million in UN budget cuts, 3,000 fewer jobs and the US decision to pull out of several UN agencies, even as he defended US President Donald Trump’s threats against Nato allies and comments that “a whole civilisation will die” in Iran.
“So there is a mean tweet with a regime that’s genocidal, chants death to America,” Waltz told the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. “You’re going to talk about some tough language, and the result of it was diplomacy. The result of it was the highest meeting in the history of the United States and the Iranian regime, with the return to the ceasefire.”
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Waltz said the Trump administration has unabashedly approached the UN from the perspective of “America first” and what the institution is doing for US farmers, companies and values.
Washington would continue to support UN agencies such as the World Intellectual Property Organisation and the International Telecommunication Union, as well as other standard-setting bodies, while eschewing those it saw as a lost cause, such as the Human Rights Council.
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“The UN has to stop doing stupid things,” said Jeff Bartos, US ambassador to the UN for Management and Reform, who was spearheading much of the US-led cost-cutting and efficiency drive. “We’re not getting our money’s worth there.”
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