The Hill reported that the administration of President Joe Biden has informed UNESCO that the United States is interested in rejoining the organization. The Washington Post added that last weekend, the State Department sent a letter to UNESCO Director-General Audrey Azoulay. In the letter, US Deputy Secretary of State Richard Verma proposed a plan to bring the United States back to the organization after a nearly six-year absence.

“Any such action would require the consent of UNESCO’s current members and we understand that the UNESCO Board will forward our proposal to members in the coming days,” the US State Department said in a statement.

Although the details of the proposal have not been made public, The Hill newspaper quoted a source as saying that the proposal has been discussed by the US State Department and UNESCO, including mentioning the timetable for the US to pay its debt to UNESCO.

UNESCO Director-General Audrey Azoulay announced the US's desire to rejoin the organization at a UNESCO meeting in Paris, France, on June 12.

Earlier this year, the Biden administration set aside $150 million in its current budget to pay UNESCO. Last year, U.S. lawmakers also passed a bill allocating more than $500 million to repay UNESCO debt in an effort to bring the U.S. back to full membership, Axios reported.

The United States began to stop contributing to UNESCO in 2011. Up to that point, Washington had contributed about 22% of UNESCO's annual budget, equivalent to $80 million.

According to NHK's website, citing several sources, UNESCO is expected to hold an extraordinary meeting at its headquarters in Paris, France, to officially announce the US's proposal to rejoin.

AP noted that the relationship between the US and UNESCO has gone through four stormy decades due to many issues. In 1983, President Ronald Reagan decided to withdraw the US from UNESCO, but in 2002, Washington rejoined the organization under President George W. Bush. Then, in 2017, President Donald Trump announced the US withdrawal from UNESCO on the grounds that the organization had an anti-Israel stance.

According to AFP, earlier this year, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken also announced that the US intended to return to UNESCO. He said: "I believe we should return to UNESCO again, not as a gift to UNESCO but because what is happening at this organization is really important."

Earlier, last year, Israel informed the US State Department that it would not object if the US rejoined UNESCO.

Axios news agency said that bringing the US back to UNESCO is one of the top foreign policy priorities of President Joe Biden's administration. In fact, since taking office, the Biden administration has expressed its intention to rejoin UNESCO. Axios also quoted a source saying that the US wants to rejoin UNESCO and start paying dues now in order to run for a seat on the organization's executive board in the election taking place in late 2023.

Recently, US Deputy Secretary of State John Bas also shared that, in his opinion, the US cannot be absent any longer from UNESCO - one of the key forums that sets standards for the fields of education, science and technology.

NINH GIANG