Argentina Officially Withdraws from WHO

RunWithRugs · 2026-03-25T17:04:46+00:00

Argentina has officially withdrawn from the WHO, as confirmed by Foreign Minister Pablo Quirno. This decision reflects ideological opposition to WHO's COVID-19 response, aiming to restore national sovereignty over public health while still pursuing international cooperation through other channels.

RunWithRugs

2026-03-25 17:04:46

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(MENAFN) Argentina has formally severed ties with the World Health Organization, President Javier Milei’s government confirmed Tuesday — completing a definitive break with the United Nations’ flagship health body exactly one year after the withdrawal process was first set in motion.

Argentine Foreign Minister Pablo Quirno announced the milestone via social media, making clear the exit was both deliberate and legally binding. “Argentina communicated this decision to the Secretary-General of the United Nations on March 17, 2025,” he stated. “In accordance with the Vienna Convention on the Law of Treaties, the withdrawal becomes effective one year after that notification.”

The Milei administration’s rupture with the WHO is rooted in deep ideological opposition to the organization’s handling of the COVID-19 pandemic. President Milei has long branded the WHO a “nefarious” institution and has publicly condemned global lockdowns as the “greatest experiment in social control in history.”

Buenos Aires contends that the body’s pandemic directives were shaped by political agendas rather than sound science — and that exiting the treaty restores Argentina’s sovereign authority over its own public health decisions.

The withdrawal places Argentina in lockstep with its closest international ally, US President Donald Trump, who — since reclaiming the White House — has reinvigorated his assault on the WHO, citing institutional dysfunction and insufficient transparency. Together, the coordinated exits by Washington and Buenos Aires represent a mounting structural challenge to the architecture of global health governance.

Yet Quirno was careful to frame the departure not as retreat, but as realignment. “Argentina will continue to promote international cooperation in health through bilateral agreements and regional forums,” he said, pledging that the new approach would “fully safeguard [Argentina’s] sovereignty and its decision-making authority regarding health policies” — distancing the country from what the administration characterizes as “supranational impositions.”

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