The United States will withdraw from the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), Reuters reports, News.bg reports.
The decision comes amid President Donald Trump's efforts to remove the country from international institutions that he has long criticized, a White House official said.
The move is a blow to the Paris-based agency, created after World War II with the mission of promoting peace through international cooperation in the fields of culture, science and education.
During his first term, Trump withdrew the United States from several international agreements and organizations, including the World Health Organization, the UN Human Rights Council, the Paris Climate Agreement and the Iran nuclear deal.
Since taking office in In 2021, President Joe Biden reversed these decisions and returned the country to UNESCO, the WHO, and the climate agreement.
With Trump's second term, the course changed again; in addition to withdrawing from UNESCO, the new administration ordered a 90-day pause in all foreign policy aid to review its alignment with the White House's priorities.
UNESCO is world-renowned for designating and protecting world cultural and natural heritage sites, including the Grand Canyon in the United States and the ancient city of Palmyra in Syria.
The United States was among the organization's founders in 1945, but left for the first time in 1984, protesting alleged financial waste and perceived anti-American bias. It rejoined in 2003 under President George W. Bush, after the agency embarked on a series of reforms.
According to UNESCO, the organization is now significantly less dependent on American funding than it used to be. However, the US decision will affect programs that the country directly funded.
The United States currently provides about 8% of UNESCO's budget, significantly less than the nearly 20% it provided in 2017, when the Trump administration first suspended its participation.